Mansfield Town

Manager Adam Murray believes that it’s important our side find a level of consistency and improve on defensive lapses during periods of game.

Our boss was speaking after today’s 1-1 draw with Hartlepool United – a game which we led courtesy of Junior Brown’s 10th minute strike before the Pools equalised shortly after half-time.

“[Frustration] was again the major word and I think the performance showed where we are as a team at the minute,” reflected Murray.

“Inconsistency of being really good and being really bad is where we are as a group at the minute. We go from big highs to major lows and to do anything and succeed, you have to have consistency.”

He continued: “We’ll create chances now – I’ve no doubts about that, but a big thing I’ve spoken about over the last few weeks is being ruthless in both boxes. 

“At the minute, we go through the motions of playing at 60 and 70% and it’s not good enough. The good things we did at points in the first half, kind of went out of the window in the second half.”

On the Pools’ equaliser, Murray said: “People are saying there was a deflection, but the ball shouldn’t be coming into our box and the ruthlessness of our defending and the ruthlessness of being clinical at the other end needs to be upped.”

The game ended with both teams short on players as defender Ryan Tafazolli was shown a second yellow card, before Marlon Harewood and Michael Woods were red carded for Hartlepool late on.

On Tafazolli’s dismissal, the boss added: “If I’m being honest for both yellow cards, I don’t think he needed to do what he did, so it’s a massive learning curve for him.”

Another talking point from the game occurred just before the hour mark when a header by Matt Rhead ricocheted off the upright and appeared to cross the line, but no goal was awarded.

Reflecting on the incident, Murray said: “From where I was standing it looked like it had crossed the line, but I’m a long way away on the touchline, so it’d be unfair for me to comment.”

As we approach the midway point in the season, our team still occupy 16th spot in Sky Bet League Two – eight points above the drop zone, but 10 points adrift of the play-off positions.

Looking ahead, our manager said: “We can’t keep giving ourselves these mountains to climb and expect to be successful and compete at the higher end of the table.

“We need to be realistic at where we are. We’re not a team at the minute that is going to break into that top section and compete – we’re in a battle and a challenge for this season.

“The main thing is that every point we’re getting is important and we’re trying to get them points on the board quickly, because where we are in our journey, we’re a yo-yo team at the minute and we need to level that out.”