Mansfield Town striker Rhys Oates says he feels that he’s getting ‘back to his best’ following the forward’s equaliser at Grimsby Town this afternoon.
Stags trailed at half-time but Oates climbed off the bench as a substitute at the break and coolly slotted home on 59 minutes to secure a 1-1 draw at Blundell Park.
The dynamic frontman has benefitted from a full pre-season following an injury-hit 2022-23.
Speaking to iFollow Stags post-match, Rhys said: “I think I am [getting back to my best] I just need to relax in front of goal.
“I think I’ve had quite a few chances where I’ve made quite silly decisions really.
“I just need to relax in front of goal and the goals will come.
“I’ve got a few assists and won a few penalties, so I think I’m getting back to my best.”
On his goal, the striker said: “I noticed they [Grimsby] were playing such a high line in the first-half.
“They kept quite a high line, and I got in, the pitch is quite dry and so it [the ball] has held up for me and I got round the ‘keeper and slotted it home.
“It’s an unbelievable ball [from Jordan Bowery]. It’s held up perfectly for me to knock it past him [the Grimsby goalkeeper] and slot it home.”
On Mansfield’s performance this afternoon, the former Hartlepool man said: “I think we probably did enough to get all three [points].
“Towards the end of the game they [Grimsby] sat off us and were just letting us play.
“We do that to teams. We dominate possession.
“I don’t think we did it quite enough in the first-half but I think because they were playing such a high line, it was quite tough to play short passes.”
Stags showed character again on the road to get a result from a losing position - the second game in a week in which they’ve had to do so following Tuesday’s point at Doncaster.
“It [coming from a goal down to get a result] shows that we’ve got good depth in the squad,” said Rhys.
“We’ve had quite a few injuries. We’ve been unlucky on Tuesday with four injuries - especially Alfie [Kilgour].
“I’ve not trained really for the last couple of weeks with my hip so it’s one of the reasons the gaffer told me I wasn’t starting today.
“We don’t really want to risk anymore injuries but it shows if I come out Swanny goes straight in and it’s good for him to get the 90 minutes that he probably needed having missed quite a bit of pre-season.”
The forward went on to provide an insight into Nigel Clough’s half-time instructions.
“He told us we needed to be better all over the pitch.
“[We were told to] Up the tempo and just make more runs in behind and stretch the game.
“Just more tempo, get back to how we’ve been playing [in the] first four games before today.”
