Mansfield Town

Mansfield Town defender Krystian Pearce spoke of his delight on returning to the starting line-up after last night’s 1-1 draw with Milton Keynes Dons.

Pearce played the full 90 minutes as Adam Murray’s men secured a well-deserved draw with their Sky Bet Championship counterparts through a peach of a strike by Nathan Thomas.

The former Torquay United defender spoke about the importance of getting some essential game-time under his belt.

“I definitely needed the minutes after I injured my ankle in the Tamworth game” said Pearce. “It was my first game back and I felt really good. It’s been tough, but I’m back fit now and I feel I can kick on from here.

“Obviously you never want to get injured so when it happened it was really frustrating. Now that I’m back, I’m just trying to get to full fitness and get to the best I can be.” 

Having won promotion to the Sky Bet Championship last season, the Stags faced the task of going toe-to-toe with a team now two divisions above them in the Football League, but Pearce believes his side showed how to cope with the array of talent which the visitors had on show.

Pearce continued: “I think we definitely got a good workout from the game. We tried to focus on our defensive shape this week, and I thought we did well against a very good team.

“They are a very good side; they kept the ball well, they have good players and they have good movement up front. I think we coped well and dealt with all of their threats.”

Pearce had a number of centre-half partners on Tuesday, with Lee Collins, Corbin Shires and a trialist all playing alongside the former England youth international.

Adapting to circumstances is something Pearce says he is used to: “There were definitely a few changes but you have to deal with that. If you’re in a game and someone gets sent-off, you have to change your defence to deal with it.

“It’s definitely a positive that we are reflecting our play from the training ground because that is what we are training to do, setting ourselves up well and tonight was a good example.”