Just Back...Mansfield   (merged)

Very positive performance first half felt like we could have had 4 or 5. After the break felt like we tired a little and didn’t come out with the same gusto but what an entertaining 0-0. Special shout-out to Waterfall and Lloyd tonight who I thought was our standout performers and I’d go try and sign the latter permanently in the summer.

We are identifying the nucleus of the squad we need to keep in the summer with a few tweaks and additions I think we can be right up there in the mix next year.

Crowd was absolutely brilliant aswell, looking forward to Saturday already. UTM!

Excellent first half, unusual attacking line up with Taylor Lloyd and Mcatee which should have paid dividends but somehow they kept us out/we failed to score.
Second half was always going to be a different kettle of fish and their tweaks and extra push and our constant habit of just passing straight back to them gave us no foothold.  
They still really only threatened from set pieces but Waterfall very lucky to not repeat his sin of trying to be Beckenbaher when carrying the ball out.
No lack of endeavour but summer and January window coming back to haunt us, no guile in the middle, no pace out wide and no genuine goal scorer.
Great turn out, good voice and kept their fans very quiet.

UTM


Please merge threads

Just walked in. Brilliant first half. Second half we never had many opportunities. A good point overall to a playoff chasing team. Unreal atmosphere better than at Brighton, roll on Bradford away.

Should have been at least 2 up by half time, then we run out of steam and they come back into it. A good night with a great atmosphere, felt good to be back at a league 2 ground after Sunday, almost forgot, Ref was awful. UTM

I received a text from a Mansfield supporter at half-time and he reckoned we should have been six up.

Great performance in the first half but Mansfield had the better of the second.

Tremendous atmosphere. It only went a little quiet in the last ten minutes but what a racket!

I really enjoyed that game. It was entertaining for a goalless draw. I've become friends with quite a few Stags fans over the last few years and had the benefit of their company before the game.

Disappointed that they don't do programmes but I did get plenty of team sheets if anyone is a collector and wants one. Free of course. I've passed a few on already.

Quoted from Dave Gilberts Left Peg

Should have been at least 2 up by half time, then we run out of steam and they come back into it. A good night with a great atmosphere, felt good to be back at a league 2 ground after Sunday, almost forgot, Ref was awful. UTM

Yes - enjoyable. Lloyd splendid effort again. Liked how we set up, no reason why we shouldn’t carry on with that shape on Saturday, with Harry in for Gav and maybe Hunt for Morris.

Quoted from Ashby mariner

Just walked in. Brilliant first half. Second half we never had many opportunities. A good point overall to a playoff chasing team. Unreal atmosphere better than at Brighton, roll on Bradford away.

Most atmospheres will be better than Brighton, that was all day out type stuff and tourists…

I think it’s a great point, I’ve never felt we’ve been in the playoff race but taking points from playoff teams stands puts us in a great place moving forward into next season, good performance too after a kicking on Sunday. Cracking bouncebackability to some extent…

Really enjoyed the first half, thought we were the better of the two teams and had some really good chances to score and will no doubt feel a bit disappointed that we didn't.

Second half swung a bit and Mansfield definitely dominated the second half and gave us little really to get excited about but I also thought we contributed to that ourselves with some really poor passing and lapses in concentration at times.

The ref was awful in the second half, which was strange because I thought he was half decent in the first. Not sure what happened at HT but he seemed adamant that he wasn't going to give Town anything if he could help it in the 2nd half.

In honesty, after the exertions at the weekend, playing away from home against a team just outside play-offs with real sights to be in them I think many would have taken a point before the game. Aside from the frustration of the dip in performance in the second half I wasn't disappointed with the game and as others have said already, for a 0-0 it wasn't as drab an affair as the scoreline might suggest.

Not sure about keeping their fans quiet though. Granted I was right over the other side but you could hear them for most of the game. You could also hear Town fans right throughout the game too so I imagine if you were right in the thick of that you wouldn't have heard the home lot. At L2 level that's probably the best I've seen from home fans but I must confess my away days this season don't stretch past double digits yet.

Excellent first half performance and should have gone in at half time at least 3 goals up, I thought our front line of Taylor,Lloyd and JM linked well and the chip/shot from JM inside the box was class and so unlucky to come back off the post and nice to see Waterfall getting on to a corner with his head and producing a good save from their keeper although his later effort from inside the 6 yard box with his left foot was something for him to forget. 2nd half just drifted by although Holohan did not help our situation with some poor passing and surprised he wasn’t replaced by Hunt. MoM for me was Smith he didn’t do much wrong all game, would have taken a point before kick off but felt like dropped 2 points after.

It was a very entertaining game, we have to take our chances though. It never felt like Mansfield would score, even when they were the better team in the second half, but they clearly regrouped at half time to deal with the threat we were causing them.

A lot of positives to take from that, the front 3 of McAtee, Taylor and Lloyd worked well together, a more mobile version of Taylor so everyone can chase a through ball would make that front 3 even better. I want to see Lloyd signed up in the summer.

Maher has a decent throw on him but it is always won by the defender, it's not going to cause the mayhem that Cropper causes with his but we need to work on a way of getting Maher's throw ins to work because it currently feels like we are dragging him out of position unnecessarily.