Mansfield Town manager Nigel Clough felt his side’s 2-0 defeat to Sutton United was down to ‘small details’.
The loss is the Stags’ first in seven outings after a recent run of five successive victories followed a 1-1 draw at home to Port Vale.
The boss felt his side could have taken more from the Sky Bet League Two contest had chances gone Mansfield’s way.
“I’m not too disappointed with the performance [but] certainly the result,” he said.
“I thought we had more than enough situations tonight to get a goal.
“I think Nathan [Bishop] has picked the ball out of the net twice and had one cleared off the line but apart from that he didn’t have much else to do.
“I don’t think that we played badly. At 1-0 l I thought if we get a goal at any time the least we’ll get out of the game is a point.
“[We were] A little bit unlucky when it [the ball] came in and landed at the lad’s feet. He finished it well but we shouldn’t have given away the free-kick in the first place.”
The manager was pleased with his side’s perseverance to find a goal after going behind.
“I don’t think our heads dropped particularly,” said Clough. “I thought we kept playing and created situations right until the end.”
“It wasn’t through lack of effort tonight it was just through a lack of thought and care in and around the penalty area.
“He [Tyrese Sinclair] had two or three [chances] when he came on and didn’t convert any of them which is our problem when we’re missing Rhys Oates and Danny Johnson, our two best goal scorers. That showed tonight.
“We got away with that on Saturday but it showed up tonight.”
On Rhys Oates’ injury the gaffer said: “[He’s] Not too far away, we’ll see how he is. He hasn’t joined in training yet so we hope he will before the end of the week.
“Kellan Gordon got a slight knock on his knee in training yesterday that’s why he wasn’t with us.
“It was good to get Laps [George Lapslie] back on the pitch [today].
“He [Stephen Quinn] wasn’t right tonight. We took a little bit of a gamble and we put the same team out which you can understand when we’ve won five on the spin.
“We wanted to get that same team but it wasn’t right so at half time we got him [Quinn] off and hopefully he’ll be alright for Saturday.”
The Stags face another important test in South London on Saturday as they face Crawley Town.
“We’ve had a great run of five [victories] on the spin but all that matters now is Crawley.
“Effort wise [there was] no problem tonight, [it was] just those little details and that’s all it was.
“We’re going home tonight and then we’ll have a bit of rest and get ready for Crawley on Saturday.
“It’s a tough week for everybody travelling wise and we’ll make sure that we’re on it come 3pm on Saturday.”
You can watch the interview in full on iFollow Stags by clicking here.
