Stags’ boss Steve Evans says his side’s second half showing in tonight’s 0-0 draw away to Yeovil Town was worthy of securing maximum points at Huish Park.
After a slow opening 45 minutes, Stags upped the ante after the half-time interval and completely dominated second half proceedings, with Yeovil stopper Arthur Krysiak called upon frequently and the Glovers producing some last-ditch defending to keep the score at 0-0.
And although the gaffer was disappointed to only take home a point from Somerset, he commended his players for how they reacted to his half-time team talk.
“We go in at half-time and it was probably one of the few times I had to give them ‘a bit’ to wake a few up," the Stags' chief said.
“You look for a reaction as a manager and I just said that to the players, they can take great credit because they reacted the right way. Some can take it badly and sink, but they reacted the right way and I thought some of our football in the second half was fantastic.
“Yeovil’s a very difficult place to come to. They’re good supporters, they stick behind them but I think the Yeovil fans were very quiet in the last 25 minutes because I think they were waiting for their team to concede. We’ll play a lot worse than that second half and win games.
“You can’t fault the effort, again, you can’t fault the endeavour – we had that in bundles and in the second half some of the passing and moving was outstanding. We didn’t help ourselves with missing some, what looked from the sideline – I’ll look back at the DVD – some very easy chances.”
The former Leeds United manager reiterated his belief that his side were the better of the two teams on the night, but says they were hampered by their slow start to the encounter.
“We just started sloppy and I’m a big believer as a manager or a coach, I’ve always said if you don’t start something right, it never normally finishes right.
“If you look at the fact that we’ve come to Yeovil and got a point, we’ve not finished right. We should win the game and we should win it comfortably.
“You always say in football that you have to be prepared to start properly and if you start properly, normally the end result, if you’re good enough, takes care of itself.”
After returning to the starting line-up following an injury to Jake Kean on Saturday, goalkeeper Scott Shearer was at the centre of a controversial incident in the fifth minute for handling the ball outside of his area, but the gaffer believes the referee made the right decision in showing the Glaswegian shot stopper a yellow card.
“I don’t think it is [a red card], I think there’s two reasons for that. I’m sure that he’s not denying a goalscoring opportunity because the ball’s off to the seaside it was going that far wide!
“That was the main decision from the referee that he doesn’t deny a goalscoring opportunity and anyone that wants to look at the footage and say the ball’s not heading to the seaside then they need my specs on.”
Manager Steve Evans’ post-match interview will be on Stags PlayerHD in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
