Stags’ boss Adam Murray expressed his pleasure with his side’s consistent away form after they picked up a solid point at the Alexandra Stadium this afternoon, the home of Crewe.
Striker Pat Hoban scored his first goal for the club to give Stags the lead just after half-time, but veteran Crewe forward Chris Dagnall equalised a few minutes later to ensure the home side secured a share of the spoils in Cheshire.
And speaking post-match, Murray said he was pleased with how his side executed their game plan to secure their second consecutive 1-1 draw on their travels after the midweek stalemate against Accrington Stanley.
“I’m very pleased because it’s a very tough place to go. I think their home record is very good so to come here and get a point, we’re pleased with,” Murray said.
“[I’m] frustrated that we’ve taken the lead again and not managed to hold it out but I thought the performance again was really good.
“We put some building blocks in place from Tuesday at two very good teams [in] the league but we’ve said all along, the away form’s not the problem; we go away to a lot of places and don’t get beat.
“It’s the home form we want to address and we want to nail because everybody knows, as a professional footballer, you pick points up away from home and you win your home games you get promoted – so we’ve just got to sort the home bit out now and we’ll be alright!”
Irishman Pat Hoban gave Stags the lead in the 51st minute and Murray said the former Dundalk man gives his side a different option after selecting him ahead of Matt Green in the last two matches.
“I think he’s added a different dimension to us hasn’t he. He’s allowing people to get involved; you look at the territorial advantage and the time we’re spending in the final third now is a lot longer and obviously common sense tells you the more time you spend in there, the more chance you’ve got of scoring.
“He’s a different option to the other boys but I think he’s been fantastic considering he’s not played any competitive football and he’s had two games, Tuesday [and] Saturday, [and he’s put in] a really, really good shift and I’m over the moon for him to get his goal.”
Stags now face a trip to Port Vale in the Checkatrade Trophy on Tuesday evening followed by a mouth-watering home match against Notts County next Saturday and Murray, who turned 35 yesterday, is cautious of the midweek match after suffering injury blows in the last EFL Trophy match against Doncaster Rovers.
“We’ve had a consistent two games now so we’re going to be very careful. We’ll play certain people, we’ll rest certain people but I’m not going to hide the fact that I don’t like this game.
“I think it, for teams like ourselves with ‘smallish’ squads and not much resources, our focus has to be the league so it’s a game of football that you obviously go in to and you want to win but we’ve got a massive ‘rock’n’roller’ next Saturday.
“Grimsby’s like half a local derby to us – Notts County’s the local derby so we’re preparing, we’ll rest up and we’ll deal with the week as we have to.”
Supporters will be able to view Adam Murray’s post-match interview on Stags PlayerHD later this evening.
