Manager Graham Coughlan has delivered his post-match assessment following tonight’s 3-1 defeat to Lincoln City in the EFL Trophy.
Defender Rollin Menayese’s powerful header was not enough to prevent the Stags from exiting the competition after goals from Jamie Soule, Anthony Scully and Theo Archibald.
Speaking after the match, the Stags’ boss said: “We weren’t good enough. We made some elementary errors – but we seem to standing here talking about the same things over and over again.
“Possession of the football wasn’t good enough and we gave it away too easily. When you give the ball away to good teams, you’re going to be in trouble.
“The lads feel that the whole world is against them and what they’re trying to do is not coming off. The only way out of that is to just keep working.
“They’re an honest, hard-working group of lads and I don’t think anyone can question that. We certainly don’t lack work rate and effort, but work rate and effort is not going to win us games in this current state.
“We need to put all of our energy into getting a result at the weekend.”
In the second-half, the manager opted for a change of formation, and explained the reasons for doing so.
“When you’re going through a little bit of sticky patch, you probably go back to basics, and I think that’s where we are at this point.
“A lot of work we do Monday to Friday is excellent, but we don’t tend to see that on the Saturday. That for me is a little bit of a concern.
“We changed it up and went to 4-4-2. We got some pressure on the ball and looked after it a little better.
“It is a basic formation and every footballer up and down the land has played that formation. It’s something that we can fall back on, but I don’t think it’s time to rip up the blueprint yet.”
On the goals Mansfield have conceded this season, Graham Coughlan added: “There’s no getting away from it – the goals that we have been shipping have been individual errors and daft goals to be giving away.
“That’s just where one or two lads are and that’s where we find ourselves at this moment at time.
“The only way out of it is rolling your sleeves up, digging deep and working hard on the training ground.”
There was also an update on goalkeeper Marek Stech, who missed Saturday’s game at Newport County.
“I wouldn’t say he [Marek Stech] is fully and completely [well] – I wouldn’t be brave enough to use those terms.
“He has come back in yesterday and had a session. We gave him another 24 hours between yesterday and today to recover.
“Fingers crossed he’s okay and ready to train in the morning.”
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