Mansfield Town

Two-goal striker Matt Green feels the Stags' performance deserved three points following the 2-2 draw with Sky Bet League 2 table-toppers Northampton Town this afternoon.

The 29-year-old now has 14 goals in the current campaign following his first-half brace which put Adam Murray’s men 2-0 up, before Jamie McGuire was sent off on the stroke of half-time.

Ricky Holmes and John Marquis netted to draw the Cobblers level and that’s how it stayed, although Green believes that the result wasn’t a fair reflection on the Stags’ performance.

“We should’ve got something [more] out of the game but we went down to ten men and we dug in and showed our endeavour and eventually it evened itself out. It’s a great reaction and that’s what the manager wanted.

“We ‘went for the throat’ and we were unfortunate not to come away with the three points. That’s the story of our run right now; it’s small margins. We’ve got to make sure the margins are more in our favour to build on for the future.”

The ex-Birmingham City man had praise for his team-mates for creating the opportunities that he took for his goals, and also enjoyed the way the side rose to the occasion against Northampton, who haven’t lost since 19 December.

“I’ve been on to the boys about getting chances and to be fair they all dug in today and created some. Backs were against the wall, the faithful wanted to come and see us and see if we could react as a team after the results we had – today we showed it.

“I saw that we can play football and pass the ball with a tempo against a good side. Playing against a team that’s running away with the league like that, you can easily crumble under the pressure and you could easily hide in your shell and do simple things, but we didn’t do that at all today.”

With seven games left to play, Green says the club must use the fluctuating nature of the division to their advantage, and keep their heads up and not give up in their quest for a play-off position.

“It’s football, anything’s possible. There’s 21 points [to play for] and things change, things happen – especially at this level. We just need to take as much confidence as we can out of this and move on to the next game.

“I always like to live my life positively and be a positive person and that way you attract positivity and the team will attract that. All we can do is win the games that we have, get good results and get good team performances. We were men out there [today], we were soldiers and I think everybody could see that.”

You can view Matt Green’s post-match interview, in full, on Stags Player.