Woking 2 Mansfield Town 2

DAVID Holdsworth has spent much of the last few weeks telling his Mansfield Town players they have to earn new contracts for next season.

And Rob Duffy could hardly have submitted a more compelling personal case at the Kingfield Stadium.

The Welsh striker is one of 20 players whose current deal expires in the summer to leave a question mark hanging over his head.

His situation is one of the most intriguing of all those under the microscope, because he is a "maybe".

Some will almost certainly leave for pastures new and others Holdsworth will be eager to retain. Duffy is one of just a handful in the middle.

He has certainly divided fans' opinion, drawing an equal share of supporters and detractors.

But whatever your view on the abilities of the Welshman, there is no arguing with his excellent scoring rate.

Since signing for the club from Newport County in January, he has now hit nine goals in 18 starts and one substitute appearance.

That represents a ratio of almost one every two games and would have been enough for him to pass the 20-goal milestone had he been playing all season.

Duffy has achieved that, despite coming from a part-time club in Newport County where his fitness suffered from a lack of regular training. A full pre-season of work under his belt could only make him stronger.

The 26-year-old has certainly made it clear he is keen to stick around at Field Mill having stepped back up to the professional ranks.

And a couple more performances like this one at Woking in this week's final two home games of the season will all but assure he starts his pre-season training in July at Sookholme's John Fretwell Complex.

Duffy's two goals, one in each half, were clinically taken.

The first was a brilliant piece of quick-thinking and athleticism, giving Mansfield the lead as half-time approached.

With Aaron O'Connor's cross dropping behind him, Duffy took off a la Pele in Escape to Victory to find the left-hand corner with a overhead scissors kick. It was Mansfield's first goal in four away games.

His second was much less spectacular, but just as well taken, as he steered a header into the far corner beyond Danny Knowles from Ollie Hotchkiss' superb deep cross.

The Swansea-born player might even have claimed a hat-trick late on, but his control let him down from an O'Connor pass and Paul Lorraine cleared.

It was not just former Oxford man Duffy who was much-improved – so were the whole Mansfield team.

Holdsworth demanded a response after five consecutive away defeats at Cambridge, Grays, Histon, Wrexham and Northwich – and he got one.

That was despite four changes to the starting line-up with debutant Curtis Shaw, Nathan Arnold, Gary Silk and Duffy replacing Gianluca Havern, O'Connor and the injured Matt Somner and Daryl Clare.

O'Connor was not out of action for long as Louis Briscoe limped off with an ankle injury after just 20 minutes and there was a further setback at the start of the second period when Curtis Woodhouse failed to reappear because of a groin problem and was replaced by Alan O'Hare.

Both sides struck the woodwork in the first half, O'Connor clipping the bar for the Stags before Wilfried Domoraud headed against the foot of a post for Woking.

But things really hotted up with two goals in three minutes. First came Duffy's memorable strike, but almost immediately Woking levelled when Colin Miles back-heeled home after the Stags failed to clear a corner.

Mansfield played their best football in the second period and were just starting to gain the upper hand – having a good case for a penalty for handball against Paul Lorraine turned down – when Woking went in front.

Unfortunately, it was down to another goalkeeping error from Jason White of the type that have punctuated his Stags career at regular intervals.

This one, failing to collect a routine cross from Joel Ledgister, will probably have sealed his fate in terms of him being shown the door by Holdsworth, if that decision had not been made already.

It allowed the Cards' Joe Anderson to roll the ball home from an acute angle and send the home fans into raptures.

But unlike in previous away defeats, Mansfield remained positive and were rewarded with Duffy's leveller ten minutes from time.

The Stags could and should have stolen all three points in the closing stages when Nathan Arnold fired over from close in.

Equally, though, they were lucky Ledgister didn't win it for Woking when he blazed over with just seconds of stoppage time left.

The draw was Mansfield's first on the road since Holdsworth took over. Still, a point was more than the loyal visiting supporters have enjoyed on many of their away trips, covering in excess of 6,000 miles this season.

Ultimately, they had Duffy to thank for that – and if Mansfield don't sign him on for 2009-2010, then another Conference club surely will.

matthew.halfpenny@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk