Stags’ under 21s head coach Mike Whitlow want his Stags’ side to use more ‘nous’ after seeing them again defeated after a number of individual errors this afternoon.
York City fielded a side filled with first team experience against Town’s young professionals, and walked away 3-0 winners after they punished errors from the Stags’ defensive rearguard.
And Whitlow says his players need to learn quickly after conceding a number of goals due to individual errors over the past few weeks.
“We’re having the same conversation and it’s getting boring,” said Whitlow.
“Individual errors happen in football plenty, but we’re conceding too many from them. You can see that from the goals today - the second came from a clearance that went straight up in the air and the third is a ‘keeper error.
“We’ve got to learn that those mistakes will be punished.”
Despite the mistakes from his side costing them clean sheets, Whitlow is keen to stress that there’s plenty of positives for his young side to take.
“I can’t fault the effort at all,” he added. “We’ll always take the pleasing aspects. I thought that Lewis [Collins] did himself the world of good with his performance today as he was exceptional.
“Tyler and Nyle Blake work so hard up front and I thought the two centre backs were superb. That was Mohammed’s (Kamara) first 90 minutes and it’s the first time putting him with Kane [Baldwin] and I thought they defended well on and off the ball.”
Now Whitlow is throwing down the gauntlet for his young side as they aim to secure professional contracts at Mansfield.
“It’s about setting a standard or you miss the boat and opportunities.
“The big thing to do is take away what they need to do to get close to a pro contract.
“A lot of their opportunities are coming against experienced pros who know their positions inside out, so they know what it takes.”
Supporters will be able to watch Mike Whitlow’s post-match interview on Stags PlayerHD tomorrow.
