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Mansfield Town 3-4 Forest Green Rovers [Hamilton, Rose, Maynard] | Sky Bet League Two | Saturday 11th January 2020 | One Call Stadium  *The views expressed in this article, are solely those of the writer and not those of their associated organisations*
I don’t think it would be much of an exaggeration to say that we watched two different teams play yesterday – both were Mansfield Town, who went from utterly brilliant, to gut wrenchingly woeful in a split second. The moment was six minutes into the five added to the end of the first half, when the Stags at 2-0 up gave a way a free kick and just stood, flat-footed and watched, as Forest Green won the game got a goal back. That goal burst Mansfield’s bubble of confidence and way in which in deflated was heart breaking to watch, we really did hit rock bottom allowing Forest Green to level the game through another sleeping set-play, and then take the lead through another fine example of concentration-less static play. Bleak hope was given when Maynard levelled in injury time, but Forest Green weren’t done and took full advantage of the Stags’ arrogance at thinking they’d got out of jail – taking all three points, and fair play to them. This side, this dressing rooms, seems to be full of problems – highlighted by the fact skipper Pearce, the clubs longest serving player, has been told by the manager he, alongside Jacob Mellis, is free to seek new challenges and will no-longer be part of the squad, unless something drastic happens. It wouldn’t surprise me if one or two more had been told the same but are playing because needs must, judging by Coughlan’s post-match “shop window” comments movement will happen if it can in January, but if not, the summer window will be very busy indeed. It’s worrying that the man elected leader of the dressing room is the one told to seek new challenges, it highlight’s a lack of leadership within the players – a lack of someone with experience who can come in and ruffle feathers. That player also needs to be someone who can be dominant in our own box, because it doesn’t take a detective to work out the consistent pattern in the goals’ we concede does it? THAT is a deal which NEEDS to be done in this window, ASAP. Coughlan has had a full week on the training ground to try and improve this rapidly failing squad, and to be fair our first half performance really showed the hard work had begun – riskily playing a lob-sided 4-3-3 with MacDonald, Tomlinson and Bishop in a tight central triangle with Hamilton stretching a high wide left, feeding balls into Rose and Maynard. It worked beautifully with a number of chances created, playing with intent and desire to press and push high against a physical side in blustery conditions – the two-nil lead deserved. Typically, Mansfield couldn’t quite see it through, the extra time in extra time no excuse for a lack of concentration, pride and care in defending our own box and protecting our lead – had we got through at 2-0 at Half Time, I genuinely feel we’d have gone on to win. And yet, here we are another Sunday, another loss. More work is to be done with things getting tougher and tougher and tougher as time ticks on. One or two more bad results and we could get dragged further into trouble, when will this hell ever end? Plymouth away next, on my actual birthday too – I see now why people say there’s no joy in getting old… Christ, I’ll on be twenty-bloody-nine! Match Recap With Pearce and Mellis told to look elsewhere, neither were included in the matchday squad as Ryan Sweeney took the armband returning into the line-up alongside Tomlinson, both back from injury. James Clarke replaced Hayden White who is still struggling with injury, whilst Oljenik came back in for Logan – with the Stags boss seeking someone to claim the number one spot. Changes, are afoot. Click HERE to read the official report FULL TIME: Mansfield Town 3-4 Forest Green Rovers | Attendance 3,965 (115) STAGS: [4-4-2] Bobby Oljenik | James Clarke, Matt Preston, Ryan Sweeney ©, Mal Benning | Alex MacDonald (Otis Khan73), Neal Bishop, Willem Tomlinson (Alistair Smith 36), CJ Hamilton | Danny Rose (Andy Cook 63), Nicky Maynard Unused Subs: Aiden Stone, Craig Davies, Jimmy Knowles, Hayden White *The views expressed in this article, are solely those of the writer and not those of their associated organisations* Comments are closed.
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