Mark Shelton happy to be back involved for Hartlepool United after goal and assist against Harrogate Town

Shelton was deployed as part of Keith Curle’s defence for the second successive fixture, after filling in as a third centre-back in the defeat against Mansfield Town, and got himself a goal and an assist in what was an entertaining 3-3 draw at the Suit Direct Stadium.

Shelton, like most in a Hartlepool shirt, struggled in the first half as Harrogate took an early lead through Alex Pattison.

But he was soon involved after the break when finding space on the right with his low cross being turned in by Mohamad Sylla.

Shelton wasn’t done there, however, as, following Sam Folarin’s equaliser, the 26-year-old popped up with a fine left-footed finish to restore Hartlepool’s lead only for George Thomson to rescue a point for the Sulphurites.

Nevertheless, despite missing out on all three points and having to ply his trade in an unnatural position in the last two games, Shelton was pleased to be back in the blue and white shirt in Curle’s starting XI.

“He rang me before the Mansfield game and said ‘have you played centre-back before?’ and I said no and he just said, ‘right, well you’re playing centre-back.’ Then the same thing happened again, he said ‘you’re playing right-back’ and I said I’ve never done that one either but that’s fine,” Shelton told The Mail.

“I thought I did alright, all things considered. I just want to play football wherever that may be, centre-back, right-back, midfield, in goal. I’m not really bothered.”

Shelton has endured a challenging season so far after penning a one-year deal in the summer. The midfielder fell out of favour with previous manager Paul Hartley before suffering a calf injury in the defeat at Swindon Town which kept him out of action for a number of weeks.

But having made his return from the bench at Rochdale, and now made back-to-back starts, Shelton is looking forward to a better 2023 after a reasonable festive period for the club.

“I’ve been injured and management and things haven’t helped. But I’m looking forward to 2023. It’s a fresh start,” said Shelton.

“We’ll see what happens going forward in January. People might go out and people might come in but we’ll see what happens.

“It was a good result against Rochdale. We were in the game against Mansfield, it would have been nice to win and would have been nice to win [against Harrogate]. That would have been a good run of games.

“We beat Crawley as well before, so for a team who are down there it’s not the worst run of results really. We ended the year strong.

“Going into 2023 they’re all winnable games in this league. I don’t think we’ve come up against many teams who have absolutely battered us - Leyton Orient away, they were probably the best team we’ve played. I played in that one and I thought they were very, very good, but apart from that I don’t think there’s too much to be worried about really.”