Stags’ boss Adam Murray has heaped praise on his side following the magnificent 3-1 victory over local rivals Notts County at One Call Stadium this afternoon.
Strikers Matt Green and Darius Henderson proved to be the difference against the Magpies as they both came off the bench to score vital goals for the Stags.
It took Green just 22 seconds to get on the scoresheet as his deflected effort beat Adam Collin in the County goal to give Stags the lead, before midfielder Alex Rodman equalised for the visitors with eight minutes to go.
Green then put Stags back in front seconds in to injury time with an emphatic penalty, before Henderson got his first goal for the club with a left-footed finish in the 93rd-minute.
And manager Murray was delighted with his players’ performance in the local derby, citing their eagerness to play ‘on the front foot’ as a particular positive.
“I think, again, the performance level was really high and we took our chances. Like we said on Tuesday night, there’s no difference to anything we’ve been doing,” Murray said.
“We’re probably playing with a little bit more intensity now, we’re probably getting people around the frontman a little bit quicker a little bit earlier and I think the hold-up play of your people like Pat Hoban and Darius Henderson, they’re allowing people to get the benefits from that.
“I felt [in the] second half, we put them under a little bit more pressure, we played on the front foot, the front boys were very good; they allowed us to get it in to them.”
Speaking post-match, the 35-year-old said Matt Green’s performance was ‘fantastic’ against the Magpies and also expressed his pleasure at a number of other performers.
“I thought Scott Shearer did really well, even though he didn’t have a lot of saves to make, we were very aware of his starting position because we knew that Forte was quick and he was excellent in that.
“Jamie McGuire, Chris Clements, I think the cheekiness of Clem’s ball at the end through to Hendo (Darius Henderson), it sums him up but it’s a little bit of quality that he holds.
“Obviously when they scored, you need to go and get another goal so we tweaked it again and fair play to Hendo, he just said to me out there: ‘I felt like I was going to cry when it hit the back of the net’ because he’s worked his socks off to get in to the position and the shape he’s in.”
Following a period of games where Stags haven't found the the back of the net as regularly as they'd have liked, Murray believes things are starting to turn in his side’s favour after this afternoon’s match extended their unbeaten run to four games in all competitions.
“People don’t believe me and they haven’t believed me but we’ve been in a good place for a long time, we’ve just needed that bit of rub of the green, we’ve needed that little bit of quality and we need to take our chances and when that happened we were always going to put in performances and get results like that.
“We’re taking every game as it comes now and we’re playing in our way, we’ve got our 'mojo', we’re playing on the front foot and when we play like that we’ll cause anybody in the league problems.”
Supporters can now view Adam Murray’s post-match interview on Stags PlayerHD.
