Crawley 1-0 Stags | Crawling without purpose

Crawley Town 1-0 Mansfield Town | Sky Bet League Two | Saturday 14th September 2019 | The People’s Pension Stadium, Crawley  

​*The views expressed in this article, are solely those of the writer and not those of their associated organisations*

“Over a period of games, so far this season we haven’t been good enough – that’s the reality” They’re the words not of me, but of Stags boss John Dempster following another sloppy and careless defeat at Crawley yesterday, and to be honest – the Stags boss is spot on.

Another Dempster quote is “You can’t play a period of games and keep harping on about fine margins” and again he’s right, there’s only so many weeks and games in which you can take them in isolation before you need to look at the bigger picture, as with eight games now played – the form book isn’t looking good for Mansfield Town.

Reflecting on yesterday for a moment, you can argue that the Stags enjoyed the better of the chances but just couldn’t find the killer instinct at key moments – however stats don’t win football matches, all they show is that deep within there is a possibility – the problem is that the consistency needed to unlock that, is absent from within.

When we played football on the floor we looked fluid and dangerous, but we didn’t stick with it for long enough periods to really hurt Crawley – we resorted to more directional, static play, which was far too easy for Crawley to pick off and eventually, ultimately exploit.

You can turn round and blame the deflection and say “it happens” and you’d have a point, but for me you need to look at the build-up play which leads to the shot coming in – we’ve had three opportunities to press and try to clear our lines, executing none of them, backing off and backing off and backing off, until the inevitable happens. It was the same at Exeter and there’s been plenty of other examples throughout the season where we’ve been punished in similar fashion.

Those are the fine margins which Dempster eluded too in his post-match comments, in solitary games they are fine margins – but games come thick and fast, we’ve now played 17% of the season and “fine margins” have lost us two away games, costing us at least two points, and also seen us concede needless goals.

We all know from last season how these fine margins add up and we can’t afford to be letting this happen on a constant basis, because another four games like this and we’ll struggle to turn it around – because so far we haven’t shown that we have the mentality to do so, or the consistency.

I think we have to look at systems in which we can be more effective going forward, we changed to a back four after the Crawley goal and looked more intent, too little too late in that particular match – but if we can start with that intent and hunger, we will go out and really hurt a team.

We certainly have the personnel to do so, if for example you looked at playing a 4-4-2 or a 4-2-3-1 you can utilise Otis Khan and get more out of CJ Hamilton playing further forward, not to mention the likes of Omari Sterling-James and Dapo Afolayan, who both looked hungry when they came on and could be the key to hurting teams early.

Hurting teams early is certainly what’s needed right now, it’ll give us that bounce and zest in our attacking play and give us something to protect which may turn these fine margins, into positive ones.

It’s a long way home when you begin to bubble with frustration at how things aren’t quite going your way – sometimes you’ve got to let go of what’s gone and pull together to light up the darkness, naturally we’ll get disheartened and say things we shouldn’t – we’re only human after all, but it’s important to focus on Tuesday’s night’s match and put things right.

I’m just as frustrated and would love to sit here and hammer negative words at my keys just to get it out of my system, but it’s a pointless exercise - a lot of our problem as a collective is that we still have our eyes firmly fixed on promotion.

Sometimes when you’ve been so close to achieving something you won’t take your eyes off of it and be constantly be haunted by the memories of failure, merging with those dreams of what could have, and should have, been – it’s like running before you can even crawl.

We need to take a little step back and focus on the little tasks, set ourselves smaller objectives – like two back to back wins which includes at the very least, one clean sheet – because two wins from the next two games gives us a bounce and a platform to build upon and see where we are in 3-4 games times, after a quarter of the season.

​I believe in the players and management – it’s just time to stop crawling and start running. Come on you Stags.      

-- Match recap --

John Dempster named an unchanged side from the one which beat Scunthorpe United 2-0 last weekend, striker Dapo Afolayan made the bench following a little niggle which kept him out of the previous weekends squad.

Both sides enjoyed early opportunities with Nicky Maynard firing wide for the Stags on three minutes, before a Matt Preston block denied Camara three minutes later as the hosts’ opened up some space.

Conrad Logan was sold short by CJ Hamilton on 20 minutes when the wing-back miscued a back pass, the Stags keeper raced out and controlled well before smashing clear, five minutes later Logan was the hero again as Pearce felled Grego-Cox inside the box – the Stags number one getting inside the penalty takers head, guessing correctly to palm away the spot-kick.

Danny Rose should have put Mansfield ahead on 32 minutes but the Stags’ number 32 got in a real mess following excellent build up play which saw Maynard provide an inch perfect cut back – Rose took a very heavy touch which saw the keeper collect, rather than lace the ball into the net which was crying out to be hit – Mansfield’s best chance of the half by far.

CJ Hamilton stung the palms of the home keeper on 42 minutes with a right footed effort, but on the stroke of half-time, it was the Stags’ stopper Logan who again bailed his side out of trouble – this time denying Lubala, after his skipped effortlessly through the defence.

Former Stag Ollie Palmer hit a tame free kick straight into the grateful grasp of Logan on 49 minutes, but four minutes later taunted the Stags faithful like a petulant child, as Lubala was allowed far too much space on the edge of the area to hit a tame shot, which looped up off of Matt Preston and beyond Logan – who could do nothing bar, rightfully, berate his static defence who had three chances to close the ball down.  

Kellan Gordon offered a response for the Stags straight from the restart but failed to keep his effort down from MacDonald’s pass, before Rose was twice denied by Morris in the Crawley goal.

Benning replaced the booked Sweeney on 63 minutes to drop into a 4-4-2 with MacDonald on the right wing, the Stags looked lively immediately but again failed to finish the move – Maynard this time denied by the keeper.

Afolayan and Sterling-James then came on for the Stags the former fired over the bar from a Rose flick on with 12 minutes remaining. At the other end Logan denied Lubala a second before with three minutes to go, the Stags best chance of the second half saw a seemingly unstoppable Benning venomous effort, expertly palmed away by Morris who flew through the air – a save which ultimately earned the hosts victory, and sent Mansfield on the long journey home empty handed and deflated.  

FULL TIME: Crawley Town 1-0 Mansfield Town | Attendance 2,068

STAGS: [3-1-4-2] Conrad Logan | Matt Preston, Krystian Pearce ©, Ryan Sweeney (Mal Benning 63) | Conor Shaughnessy | Kellan Gordon, Jacob Mellis, Alex MacDonald (Dapo Afolayan 70), CJ Hamilton | Nicky Maynard (Omari Sterling-James 73), Danny Rose Unused Subs: Aidan Stone, Alistair Smith, Otis Khan, Neal Bishop

Written by | Craig Priest
*The views expressed in this article, are solely those of the writer and not those of their associated organisations*