Mansfield boss Steve Evans: We should have had seven

Posted Sunday, February 04, 2018 by PA

Mansfield manager Steve Evans was delighted with his side’s dominance as they swept bottom-club Barnet aside 3-1 to stay in touch with the automatic promotion spots.

The in-form Stags have now won three in a row and are nine unbeaten after goals from star man Alex MacDonald, Will Atkinson and Danny Rose stung the Bees.

Evans beamed: “We should have had seven. The dominance was there for everyone to see. I thought we were brilliant until the last few minutes.

“The gulf was massive and that is credit to every one of the boys as Barnet have got some good players.

“We had to step up and produce a really solid performance. The way we moved the ball in the second half was impressive.”

The Stags allowed Barnet a late consolation as Simeon Akinola took advantage of a poor back header by Rhys Bennett, and Evans snapped: “It should have been a clean sheet.

“I don’t know what was going through his mind when Rhys tried to head it back. It was a poor decision.

“That should have been put in row Z. If he makes many more errors like that he goes out.

“It just creates some uncertainty at the end with them putting balls into the box. I’m sure Rhys will learn from it as he was otherwise excellent.”

Tasting his first defeat in his third game in charge, Barnet head coach Graham Westley was pleased with his side’s efforts.

“I thought it was a very encouraging day at the office,” he said.

“Mansfield are an expensively-assembled squad. They have quality sitting in the stand and they have quality on the bench, so it was always going to be a tough ask.

“They have been building since pre-season towards where they are now at the top end of the table.

“If you look at the match stats you will see a match that was pretty balanced on possession and we had a lot of shots for an away side.

“We played with a purpose and a thrust and decent enough quality. Over 90 minutes a couple of errors have cost us. Those errors are easily cured.

“There were so many positives and we know we’re only going to get better.

“We have a lot of younger players who are progressing upwards and will take their time to find their feet at this level.”