Mansfield Town

 

Having shipped four goals in the opening day defeat to Newport County, the boss has called on his team to deliver a strong performance at the International Stadium.

 

Cox said: “I had the players in early this morning so that we could go over things and discuss matters arising from the last match as a large group.”

 

“I told them quite simply that we can’t concede silly goals like we did on Saturday. Having looked at the statistics, we had about 15 shots on target to their four, yet we still lost the game.

 

“It wasn’t good enough. There’s a hell of a lot for us to work on and plenty of areas that we can improve in.

 

“Having said that, it isn’t the end of the world and I’ll be looking for a positive response from the players when we play Gateshead.”

 

Cox will be forced to make at least one change tomorrow night with Ross Dyer set for a spell on the sidelines after he was stretchered off during the defeat to Newport.

 

However, the extent of Dyer’s injury still remains unclear.

 

“Ross is having a scan tomorrow and that should be able to tell us more about his injury,” said Cox.

 

“The good news for us is that it doesn’t seem to be his cruciate that is the problem and it looks more like knee ligament damage.

 

“Hopefully, we will know the extent of his injury by Wednesday, but at the moment we’ve just all got our fingers crossed for him and hope it’s not too bad.”

 

The manager has also refused to rule out making further changes to his starting line-up for the clash at the International Stadium.

 

“I’ve never been one for making wholesale changes but there may be one or two,” he said.

 

“Ritchie Sutton is back after serving his suspension and Matt Rhead has returned from his honeymoon, so they are both in contention for a place in the team.

 

“We’ve no new injuries from our training session today and everyone’s chomping at the bit and eager to play a part tomorrow night.”

 

Following their 2-2 draw at Kenilworth Road against Luton Town at the weekend, Cox was also quick to praise what he believes to be a strong Gateshead side.

 

“I’m anticipating a very tough game to be honest,” continued Cox.

 

“They are a good side and I’m sure every team that goes there this season will be in for a tough time.”

 

Following our clash against Gateshead, we are next in action when we travel to Aggborough to face Kidderminster Harriers at the weekend.