Stags’ boss Adam Murray gave his reaction to the media after this afternoon's 2-1 loss against Stevenage.
The Boro took the lead thanks to Charlie Lee’s first half header before Stags’ striker Pat Hoban equalised early in the second half. With Stags on the front foot, Stevenage countered and Aston Villa loanee Harry McKirdy scored the winner for the visitors just three minutes after Stags got back on level terms.
And Murray has said he wants leaders to emerge from his squad in order to change the course of a game.
“We miss leaders at the minute. We miss people taking charge on the pitch. We have plan A, plan B, plan C and I look at it sometimes and go ‘what have you done all week? Have any of you listened to me?’ and it’s tough to take,” Murray said.
“You actually look at the list of the squad and there’s some household names on it – they’ve got to step up. We’ve got people in there that I expect to lead on the pitch.
“When I was captain, the game would go in a different flow to what was expected and as a player you’ve got to grab that and you might have to change the flow on your own as footballers and we didn’t do that today.”
The boss believes Stevenage executed a game plan at One Call Stadium which involved catching the Stags on the counter attack.
“We came up against a team that sat in and wanted to catch us on counter attack and [they] did just that. I think we showed the vulnerability and the naivety that’s in the squad at the minute.
“We didn’t have enough quality in the first half, you expect your big players to turn up and then [in the] second half we get ourselves back in to the game, start well and the goal’s horrendous.
“They 'ran' the game, didn’t they? Every time the ball went out of play it was three minutes, they had tactical stoppages when they had people going down when there was nothing wrong with them.”
The Stags' chief says he was disappointed with the goals his side conceded against the Boro after priding themselves on such a solid defensive record so far this season.
“We looked wide open as well and that’s not what we’re about. We had the second best defensive record for a reason and it’s not to be put out there and be wide open like we were today.
“It’s something that we take for granted. We don’t concede goals from set plays so for us, that is very disappointing because we don’t do that.
“The second goal’s just a calamity. We’ve got all our bodies in the box and we’re trying to play little flicks and square passes in the middle of the park when we’ve got one man back.”
Supporters can view Adam Murray’s post-match interview on Stags PlayerHD.
