Assistant manager Ben Futcher believes that Stags’ emphatic 4-0 win over Northampton Town was one the players deserved, and says such a victory has been coming for the past few weeks.
Mansfield went into the half-time break leading by a goal-to-nil after Timi Elsnik’s superb solo effort, and flew out of the traps in the second period, with Danny Rose netting twice on either side of CJ Hamilton’s strike.
Futcher was full of praise for the way the Stags attacked the game, something the coaching staff have been working on in the training ground this week.
“I thought we played really well,” he said. “We deserved the four goals and possibly could’ve got a few more. We were delighted to go out and get those goals that have been coming for the past few weeks.
“After conceding late last week we worked in training this week on really trying to change the mindset. We just told the players to have no fear and go for it.
“But today we were ruthless in both boxes and that’s the difference. When you take your chances, you can run away with the game and it becomes very comfortable.
“We’ve drawn a few too many but the performances have good. We’ve always believed in what we are doing. Today as brilliant and the players deserved that.
"We deserved the four goals and possibly could’ve got a few more. We were delighted to go out and get those goals that have been coming for the past few weeks."
“In previous weeks we’ve lost the odd lead, so today to go and kick on was everything we’ve been looking at and what the players deserved.
“We’ve got just as good a defensive record as anyone. But today it really started from the front. We changed it in the second half and put plenty of pressure on them so they couldn’t get the ball forward.
“If we can keep on the front foot and that’s the outcome then we’ll be delighted.”
Mansfield’s assistant boss also spoke of what he believed was the most pleasing aspect of the Stags’ performance, the four goals.
“The goals [pleased me most today]. We’ve played some top teams at home and we’ve done really well. We’ve just probably not been ruthless enough at times.
“We’ve worked with Timi [Elsnik] before, who is a very talented young player. It was a great finish and he’s only going to get better with time.
“It’s his first full [league] game of the season. He will get fitter and get stronger and will be a real asset to us.
“It was brilliant [Rose’s first goal]. That’s what Rosey is all about. He deserved his luck and tucked it away nicely.
“We looked at it and wanted to change it. We pushed CJ [Hamilton] up a bit higher because with his pace, once they came onto us, he could cause them problems.
“It [second goal] is always massive. In previous games we’ve created chances but not always taken them. That makes it difficult at 1-0 sometimes.”
Prior to the game, it was confirmed that midfielder Alex MacDonald was to have an operation on his knee, following an injury picked up in last week’s 1-1 draw away to Cambridge. Futcher spoke of MacDonald’s injury, and also gave an update on defender Hayden White.
“[MacDonald] got a scan during the week. He felt it after the Cambridge game and his knee swelled up so we got some bad news on that. It [operation] needs to be done. It happens with players sometimes.
“We have to look after Macca the best we can. He’ll hopefully go for the operation on Tuesday, then we’ll get him back as soon as we can.
“Whitey [Hayden White] is kind of building up to training next week. It’s going to take a couple of weeks for Whitey to be honest.”
iFollow Stags subscribers can watch assistant manager Ben Futcher’s interview in full by logging into mansfieldtown.net/ifollow later today.
