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Mansfield Town 0-1 Grimsby Town | Sky Bet League Two | Saturday 4th January 2020| One Call Stadium  *The views expressed in this article, are solely those of the writer and not those of their associated organisations* When players have been long servants, sometimes it’s hard to let go, or even get your head around the idea of letting go – but sometimes moving on is the best thing to do in order to move forward. The idea of letting go of two or three long serving players is something we all need to buy into – mainly in order to survive. Graham Coughlan has a huge job to reshape this team and get them going in the right direction, after falling to his second defeat in his five game tenure, this time Mansfield failing miserably to beat Grimsby, who played with ten men for eighty plus minutes. The Stags boss made a fatal error in showing sentiment towards his players, rewarding the side who beat Cambridge on Wednesday by naming the same starting line-up, despite openly admitting that he knew his players would hit a brick wall at some point and were running on empty – following a hectic schedule of games over the festive period. I get an appreciate that he had to back and reward his players for their efforts, but for me results come first and if that means annoying one or two individuals in order to get fresh legs and energy, then do it every single time. I honestly don’t think he’ll sacrifice a result for sentiment again, given his comments about this group already getting one manager sacked – it’s more drastic than that for me, 80% of this squad have got two managers sacked and FAILED to get us promoted – therein lies the problem. Mansfield were weak and feeble against Grimsby, Coughlan was spot on in his post-match analysis when you’re playing against ten men for so long, you have to move the ball quickly side to side, you have to play with intensity and purpose – not timidly pass between the two centrebacks and the keeper, reluctant to move forwards. Obviously us mere mortals in the stands have no idea about fitness etc and must trust in the management to make the right choices during the match, throwing Davies and Cook on however played right into Grimsby’s hands as we bypassed the non-existent midfield and might as well have renamed ourselves Mansfield Town Hoofball Club – we made it so easy for Grimsby to defend against, whereas using the more hungry and creative players in Khan, Smith or Knowles could have helped unlocked the visitors. Mansfield are dangerous (ish) when then get the ball down and play, lumping it long is pointless, I can see why we did it playing against ten, but we really need to play to our strengths. Coughlan has a week on the training ground now which will be of benefit, but we have to look at getting some new bodies in to drag us away from the quick sand dangerously nipping at our heals – an experienced commanding defender, a left sided player, a creative midfielder and a hungry striker at the bare minimum, whoever goes to accommodate them goes… unless it’s Rose because that’s madness, for the doubters – I’ll write a novel series one day on why he needs to stay! No time for sentiment, no time for dwelling, no time for arguments – dig in, pull together, improve and move on…. In every sense of the bloody phrase! Match Recap Graham Coughlan named an unchanged side, rewarding the players for the New Years Day victory, despite voicing concerns over fitness and hitting a brick wall. Click HERE to read the clubs detailed report FULL TIME: Mansfield Town 0-1 Grimsby Town | Attendance 5,840 (1,137) STAGS: [4-4-2] Conrad Logan | Hayden White (James Clarke 74) Krystian Pearce ©, Matt Preston, Mal Benning | Alex MacDonald, Neal Bishop (Andy Cook 51), Jacob Mellis, CJ Hamilton | Danny Rose (Craig Davies 86), Nicky Maynard Unused Subs: Bobby Oljenik, Otis Khan, Alistair Smith, Jimmy Knowles *The views expressed in this article, are solely those of the writer and not those of their associated organisations*
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