Midfielder Jacob Mellis says his goal against MK Dons was one of the best of his career after today’s 1-1 draw at One Call Stadium.
Mellis netted the Stags’ only goal with a thunderous effort to open the scoring in a tightly-contested encounter.
The visitors sat in second place before the meeting and were in fine form having won their last five league games on the bounce, with Mansfield now making it eight games unbeaten in all competitions following the match.
Mellis, speaking of his opening goal, said: “I think it’s probably the best [goal], maybe one other like against Hull but I don’t really shoot that much from outside the box.
“It just came to me on the edge and Futch [Ben Futcher, assistant manager] has been talking to me about shooting more so he was telling me before the game to shoot so I hit that one and caught it right so luckily it went in.
“We’ve been practicing on end product, shooting from distance and creating chances from crosses so thankfully it came off for me today.”
When asked about the Stags’ performance, he said: “We were on it from the start today and they’re a good team, but we are as well, and I think we proved that today we can go toe-to-toe with the best in the league.
“In the first half we got on top of them and I think we should’ve had a penalty and we had a couple other chances, but second half was a bit more even and I don’t think there were as many chances.
"Futch [Ben Futcher, assistant manager] has been talking to me about shooting more so he was telling me before the game to shoot so I hit that one and caught it right so luckily it went in."
“They played the right way, and the gaffer made no mistake telling us how they play and how they move the ball, so we were prepared for that and I think from the front to the back we pressed them well and didn’t let them play too much.”
Mellis also spoke about his start to the season and how he has worked to improve.
“It has been a disappointing start, the suspension was hanging over my head, but I’ve got that out the way now and I’ve been working with DT [Daryl Taylor, fitness coach], the gaffer [David Flitcroft] and working on my fitness.
“I think I’ve come back better and sharper and obviously I’ve scored a couple now and I want to keep scoring.”
The 27-year-old stated Mansfield need to ‘turn teams over’ as the Stags look forward to Crewe on Tuesday night in Sky Bet League Two.
“I think that we can turn teams over three, four or five we just need to do it now and stop talking about it.
“Focus is straight onto Crewe now and they’re a good team if you let them play as well so we need to be on that and turn this good point today into three on Tuesday.”
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