Manager Nigel Clough has called for ‘character’ and ‘resilience’ from his team in Saturday’s Sky Bet League Two clash at home to Morecambe.
The Shrimps head into the match sitting fourth in the league standings, with the amber and blue searching for a return to winning ways.
The Mansfield boss says the Stags will be looking for a result that will restore some confidence in the Stags’ dressing room.
“Apart from the second-half the other night [against Harrogate], our performances haven’t been too bad,” he told iFollow Stags.
“We just dipped in that second-half and the demoralising effect of that goal we gave away was mainly responsible for that.
“We just want to get back to doing what we were doing. We have to be harder to score against, that’s it at the moment.
“Our forward play is not too bad. Although we haven’t scored in the last two, we’ve created chances, so it’s more defensively [we have to focus on].
“I think [we’ll need] that resilience [against Morecambe] and a bit of character. We’re playing a team absolutely full of confidence and we’re probably the opposite at the moment.
“You need some character to get a result, in order to start restoring that confidence. That’s what we’ll be looking for.”
Nigel Clough offered his final thoughts on Tuesday’s disappointing defeat to Harrogate Town, adding: “It [Harrogate loss] didn’t need too much analysis – we gave away a goal that I described at the time as ‘criminal’ and that still applies.
“It’s exactly the same sort of game at Southend or anything like that, when we say, ‘no mistakes and don’t give a goal away,’ then the minimum you come away with is a nil-nil.
“But the bare minimum on Tuesday should be a nil-nil and it would’ve been without that ridiculous goal we gave away.
“The performance first-half was okay. I thought we took the game to them and we had three or four reasonable opportunities.
“Second-half, once we’d given them the goal, they are exactly the sort of team then that defend it very well.
“Everyone makes mistakes and we get that. The one we made the other night was an honest mistake, but it’s not good enough.
“But it was very important that we put it to bed, you don’t want it lingering. We move on now and try to get back to winning ways.”
There was also an injury update on full-back Stephen McLaughlin, who was substituted at half-time on Tuesday, and midfielder George Lapslie, who is continuing his recovery from a hamstring injury.
“He [McLaughlin] twisted his ankle and also had a very tight hamstring as well. I would think he’s doubtful for the [Morecambe] game.
“He [Lapslie] is back with his rehab and is jogging now. We’re two, two-and-a-half weeks since he did it at Walsall, and we originally said four weeks minimum.
“He has another ten days of work to do then we’ll hopefully see him back involved.”
iFollow Stags subscribers can watch the manager’s interview in full by logging into mansfieldtown.net/ifollow later today.
