Mansfield Town

Midfielder Timi Elsnik believes Mansfield Town dealt well with the challenge of playing with ten men after drawing 0-0 with Swindon Town.

Will Atkinson was initially booked just after the half-hour mark before referee Antony Coggins brandished a second yellow on 42 minutes for the Stags’ right wing-back.

It initially looked as though Atkinson would just receive a talking-to, before he was soon shown his marching orders.

Elsnik, who subsequently had to work tirelessly in the middle of the park, concluded that his side performed well after having to cope with one less player on the field.

“You have to reposition yourself for having ten men,” he began. “It’s a different shape and they’re going to have a spare man so you’ve got to focus on how you’re going to deal with it.

“It’s a different challenge when you have ten men – we’ve got some fast lads so we tried to get them on the break which almost paid off right at the end with CJ, it just didn’t come through.”

“I think we’ve done well. We went to a back four and Matty Preston’s a centre-back that had to play full-back so that’s never nice but I think he’s done well, too.

“It’s a different challenge when you have ten men – we’ve got some fast lads so we tried to get them on the break which almost paid off right at the end with CJ, it just didn’t come through.”

“With two men in midfield against their three, or sometimes four, you have to put an extra a shift in and we’ve done that.”

The 20-year-old also reiterated that the significance of both the clean sheet and point earned against the Robins, as they look ahead to Morecambe.

“I think everyone feels happy about the point and the clean sheet,” he admitted.

“Everyone is ready for the Morecambe game. As a footballer it’s part of your job to have a couple of days to recover then you have to ready for Tuesday’s game, which I’m looking forward to.

“Overall I think we had the better of the chances. You could also argue it the other way though but we’ve got to take the point and look forward from here.”

As Mansfield made it nine consecutive away league games unbeaten, there were plenty of positives to take from Wiltshire, as highlighted by Elsnik.

“Swindon are a big club, good team and with ten men for more than half of the game we can be happy with a point.

“The way the team stuck together as well as the clean sheet [was positive]. It’s just that the lads showed the character to not go under.

“They [Swindon] were throwing long balls into the box because they had big lads up front, but I thought we’ve done well to defend against them.

“It’s a clean sheet and point so we can go home happy.”

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