Stags’ boss Nigel Clough has offered his thoughts on this evening’s 1-0 defeat away to Harrogate Town.
Aaron Martin’s goal early in the second-half was enough to decide what was a scrappy affair at the EnviroVent Stadium.
The Mansfield Town manager says the nature in which the Stags conceded the game’s only goal – just seconds after the restart – was ‘criminal.’
“The goal we gave away is absolutely criminal and you’re not going to get anything from matches if you give goals away like that,” the boss told iFollow Stags.
“Ten seconds after half-time, from the kick-off, we haven’t been disappointed that much in the last three months.
“But to give the game away as we did tonight, we are bitterly, bitterly disappointed.
“[We had] four or five [opportunities], right from early on. Ollie Clarke ran through the middle one-on-one and the goalkeeper has made a good save.
“Faz Rawson should score from a corner with his header, and Ollie had another couple of good situations. That was our opportunity to go and get a goal in the first-half.
“When you come out in the second-half, you want to continue that, but to give them a goal as we did – you saw exactly what happened at our stadium a few months ago, when they get 1-0 up they work unbelievably hard to stop you then.
“It’s just giving the goal away as we did. If someone goes round us and sticks one in the top corner, we hold our hands up. But we’ve gifted the game away tonight.
“I’ve learned that we are where we are in the league for a reason. The task is still the same – survive this season, and build for next season.”
Nigel Clough discussed the changes he made in the second-half, whilst also conceding that his side did not do ‘enough’ to win the game tonight.
“We just tried to shake something loose and go with something a little different. We went with the two up top with a 4-4-2 and then went with three-at-the-back when Ty [Sinclair] came on.
“But I just don’t think we did enough to go and win the game tonight.
“I don’t know if we’re feeling sorry for ourselves after the last two defeats, but we don’t want to revert time and go back to how we were three or four months ago. It’s very important we don’t do that.
“The break that we had – we talked about losing the momentum – that, without a doubt, has affected us. Three defeats on the spin is very, very difficult to take.”
There was also a comment on the versatile Jason Law, who made his first league start for the Stags this evening.
“I think he did alright,” added the boss. “The surface is very tricky, it was very sandy out there and very firm, which is unusual when we’ve been on a boggy pitch.
“It was difficult for him, but I think he did alright. He had a good 30 minutes on Saturday and he did well tonight.”
iFollow Stags subscribers can watch the manager’s interview in full by logging into mansfieldtown.net/ifollow later this evening.
