Stags’ boss Adam Murray believes the determination his players put in on the training pitch is key in the making of memorable moments like the victory at Dagenham & Redbridge this afternoon.
Speaking to the press after the sensational 4-3 victory that saw the visitors come from two goals down to wrap up the three points through late strikes from Krystian Pearce and Adi Yussuf, Murray admitted he struggled to contain his emotions when the ball hit the back of the net.
Murray said: “I’m not exactly sure what I did but I know I wasn’t in the technical area!
“This is what we do it for, we work hard and I tell the boys that the monotonous work in our preparations are for moments like that. It’s a massive win and great to put back-to-back wins together.”
The Daggers proved stern competition for Mansfield after coming from behind themselves to take a 3-1 lead in the match before the late comeback by the Stags and Murray spoke about what was needed to secure another victory on the road.
“There are a couple of teams in this league I don’t like playing against because I think they’re very good in certain aspects of what they do, and Dagenham is one of them.
“Wayne (Burnett, Daggers’ manager) has got them playing, attacking-wise, where in a way it’s hard to play against and you’ve seen first half they caused all kinds of problems. But we don’t settle for second best and the lads push each other every minute of every day.
“It was a massive wake-up call in terms of when we spoke on Tuesday about the type of opposition we would be coming up against today. It was disappointing for the first 40 minutes because we didn’t take the plan in to practice like we did on Tuesday, and we got punished for it.
“We had an immense second-half; the desire to win and the passion for the shirt not to give in and not let your team-mates [give in] and have that belief we spoke about to push on and win.”
Murray made the decision to take off Jack Thomas just after Matt Green’s penalty brought the scoreline back to 3-2, replacing him with forward Adi Yussuf. Murray stated his reasons for the first-half change along with sharing his opinions on why the Stags were able to grind out a fantastic late win that sends them within a point of the automatic promotion spots.
Murray continued: “One of our main strengths this season so far has been our defensive resolve, our structure and organisation as well as our discipline.
“We didn’t show that, which was the wake-up call I mentioned, and we had to sacrifice Jack [Thomas] after the first part of the game because we needed to put it on them and put them under a lot more stress than we were doing. It was nothing against Jack, just a tactical change and it worked.”
With the fans in full voice and the players showing they can fight together arm-in-arm, Murray believes his tight-knit group are always capable of battling their way out of any corner they are put in to.
Murray rounded off by saying: “We don’t die and we refuse to let each other down. As staff and as players we are a family and you saw our fans today; simply, wow.
“When the chips are down we are learning to fight together, which over the past few years that hasn’t always been the case. At this moment in time we are all fighting the same battle.”
