Exclusive: Hartlepool United eye move for former Leeds United striker

The Mail understands Pools have run the rule over the Stockport County striker on a number of occasions this season, with director of football Craig Hignett also thought to have watched the player in recent weeks.

Manager Richard Money is keen to add at least one new player to the squad next month, with a striker thought to be high on his list of targets.

And Mulhern, just 21, is one of many players the Pools hierarchy have assessed as Money tries to assemble a squad capable of fighting on two fronts.

Mulhern is a former Leeds United youth forward.

It remains to be seen, of course, whether the decision to bring Jake Cassidy back from his Maidstone United loan has altered Pools’ thinking on the striker front, with the former Wolves man set to return on January 2, 2019.

The facts for Money, in an attacking sense at least, make for stark reading.

Pools’ strikers - Cassidy, Marcus Dinanga, Niko Muir, Tyrone O’Neill and Luke James - have contributed just seven goals between them all season.

Dinanga’s loan move from Burton Albion finishes next month.

Glen Taylor, of Spennymoor Town, is also understood to be a player checked out, although a move for the 28-year-old National League North striker is unlikely.

One player definitely not on the radar is former Sunderland winger Rees Greenwood.

The player had a trial at Pools in the final days of Matthew Bates’ rein, but the club have decided not to pursue a permanent move for the winger.