Boss disappointed not to win first home match since being appointed as permanent manager.
Manager Adam Murray is keen to ensure that standards don’t slip after watching our side take only a point from today’s Sky Bet League Two game with Cheltenham Town.The Stags looked on course for a victory following a wonder goal by Vadaine Oliver just before the hour mark, but a curling effort by Zack Kotwica in the dying minutes earned the visitors a share of the spoils.
Murray is now determined that our players improve on the defensive lapses that contributed to us only taking one point, rather than three.
“I’m disappointed not to have won that game,” said Murray,
“[The equaliser at Cambridge United last week] and goals that have both come from re-starts. Last week it was a free-kick, this week it was a throw-in and it’s not good enough.
“Its things that we’re trying to force into the week to work on and it’s going to take more work, because that’s a game today I feel we should have won.
“Their kid [Zack Kotwica] has hit it, but he’s had three yards of space on the edge of our box in the 87th minute, so it’s not good enough. A great strike or not, it’s not good enough defending. It’s not good enough focus and it can’t happen again.”
Our new boss continued: “At times we kept the ball okay, but I don’t think we were effective enough for it in the way that we want to play.
“But again, it’s getting the boys to understand that we want to keep the ball, but it’s got to be effective and we have to punish teams when we’re doing that.
“A little bit today, we weren’t dynamic and we didn’t put them on the back foot enough.”
Looking ahead to the longer-term hopes for our side, Murray added: “I’ve got to have patience and that’s the big test I’m finding, because I want thing overnight and the end product I see in my head, I want to see out on the pitch.
“I’ve got to understand that’s not going to happen overnight and it’s frustrating, because it’s little things that are costing us at the minute.
“[If it hadn’t been for] a lack of concentration for 30 seconds last week, we’d have gone through to the next round of the FA Cup. A lack of concentration today stopped us from getting three points on the board.
“That’s where we are as a team at the minute and I’ve just said to them [the players] it’s going to be a process of you coming to the party and people stepping up, before we come to that point where we’re winning continuously.”
