Striker Danny Rose says that the Stags can feel themselves getting ‘fitter and stronger’ under the stewardship of new boss Graham Coughlan.
The frontman was back amongst the goals at the weekend as he headed in Mansfield’s second in the 4-3 defeat to Forest Green Rovers at One Call Stadium.
The 26-year-old spoke extensively of Graham Coughlan’s training regime, explaining that there are ‘no hiding places’ for the players.
“The gaffer [Graham Coughlan] has come in and he wants to play with a high press, so we’re doing a lot of running in training,” he began. “We’re getting fitter, we’re getting stronger, and it’s an honest group that we’ve got. We’re determined to put things right.
“The first thing he said when he came in was that we don’t look as fit as we should be.
“We have an honest group – the lads worked hard before [earlier in the season], but I feel like the training is a lot more intense now.
“We’ve only had two full training weeks. We had a tough Christmas period, but it was a lot of recovery sessions and then back into games.
“As weeks go on, we’ll get a lot stronger and fitter and hopefully we’ll see that on Saturday. There are no hiding places [in training under Graham Coughlan].
“I’m not saying the training wasn’t tough before, but it’s tougher now. We always knew it was going to be tough because we’re playing catch-up with the other teams.”
Rose then reflected on Saturday’s 4-3 defeat to promotion-chasing Forest Green Rovers, saying that the Stags should have ‘respected the point’ when fellow striker Nicky Maynard equalised in the 90th minute of the game.
“There was a lot of disappointment after the game and a few words said in the changing room,” he added. “We felt like our first-half performance deserved a point from the game but ultimately, we’ve not seen out the game.
“We should have respected the point, in hindsight, and seen out the game, but we’ve ended the game with no points.
“We got the press right in the first-half and they got a goal right before half-time which killed our momentum a little bit.
“In the second-half we’ve not really laid a glove on them and they’ve got the [equalising] goal.
“We should have respected the point at 3-3, but we were perhaps a little naïve in thinking we could have gone on and won the game.
“We knew they were a technical side and we wanted to play with a press, we got that right [in the first-half] but not in the second-half.
“It’s always nice to get on the scoresheet. I’ve been struggling lately with not taking my chances, so it’s always nice.
“But we’re playing catch-up now, we need to start getting some points on the board, starting with Plymouth on Saturday.”
Despite the recent run of indifferent results, the former Bury striker says that there is still a positive mood amongst the Stags’ camp as the players look to turn their season around.
“The mood is good [within the squad]. There was a lot of disappointment on Saturday and there were words said – I think the main thing was that we’ve reached rock bottom.
“But we have to take the positives - things will get better. We’re hoping to put a good performance in on Saturday [against Plymouth].
“The first-half performance against Forest Green was good – I think it was the best by far we’ve done this season.
“We scored two goals against a very good side and hopefully we can do that against Plymouth and shut up shop.
“We’re hoping to frustrate them a little bit. Hopefully we can go in front and see what happens.”
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