Nigel Clough felt his Mansfield Town side were “very good” in their performance but were unable to find the net in their loss to Bristol Rovers.
It was a tight game that could only be separated by a goal from Luke McCormick just after the start of the second half at Field Mill. The result for Gas handed The Stags their third loss in five and has seen them slip even further away from the lofty position they had held just a few weeks ago.
“Some Excellent Play”
Speaking to the Mansfield and Ashfield Chad, former Burton Albion boss Clough was pleased with what he saw despite the result getting away from his side.
“We are getting into promising positions with some excellent play but we are not getting any reward or anything at the end of them.
“On another day you could comfortably win that game two or three nil without doing too much differently. We just need more quality from our strikers.
“Hopefully it will balance out and we will start getting something from the games that our performances deserve. You can’t say we played badly today.
“Most of what we did today was again very good, similar to Wrexham, but were are just not getting the breaks in the penalty area and one bit of quality has defeated us. It was two or three crisp passes and that is the quality in League One.”
Mansfield had the run of the play with 59% possession and 19 shots, but could only get four of them on target, and had nine attempts blocked by Rovers. Ultimately it was in vain as ex-AFC Wimbledon midfielder McCormick prodded home from yards out to hand Matt Taylor’s side another three vital points.
Town face an unenviable task of travelling away to league leaders Wycombe Wanderers in midweek, with Matt Bloomfield’s side on a nine-game winning run across all competitions and most recently dispatched Lincoln City at Sincil Bank.
Writer’s View
Mansfield are getting the basics right but they are just struggling to find that final flourish to succeed in matches. The game against Bristol Rovers was certainly there for the taking but they could not seize their chances. They should take the positives from this performance forward but it does look like there may be some more pain inflicted as they visit Adams Park.
1st Class Honours in Multimedia Journalism at Salford University. Writing mainly about League Two.
