Graham Coughlan delighted with performance despite dropping points

Posted Sunday, September 13, 2020 by PA

Mansfield manager Graham Coughlan was delighted with his side’s performance despite being held 0-0 at home by Tranmere in the season opener.

With both sides expected to be challenging for honours, Coughlan believed his side just needed an ounce of luck to see off their rivals as they dominated them throughout without reward.

“It was a very pleasing performance and the lads did everything I asked of them apart from put the ball in the net,” he smiled.

“These are two teams that are spoken of highly which bookies have in a relatively positive position to maybe achieve something this year.

“Overall when two top teams in the division go head to head I couldn’t ask for too much more.

“Lady Luck turned her back on us, but on another day we might not have played so well but may have got a bit of luck. But that’s football.

“The lads will be as disappointed as me, as will the fans, that we didn’t turn that performance into three points.

“But I have to be pleased with the clean sheet and the performance, individually and collectively.

“There was some real quality shown at times and now we need to push on with that type of performance.”

Rovers had an early let-off when Peter Clarke headed against his own bar from a Mal Benning free kick on seven minutes.

Keeper Scott Davies then did well to drop on the ball as Jordan Bowery tried to round him in a one-sided first half.

Bowery wasted another chance on the restart, heading wide from eight yards.

Stags then almost won it at the death, but Davies got down to parry sub Tyrese Sinclair’s shot.

Home keeper Marek Stech pushed away Rovers’ only real threat, saving from Keiron Morris from 25 yards on 25 minutes.

New Rovers manager Mike Jackson said: “When you go away from home the least you want to take is a point. So we are happy with that and we have got a clean sheet. It’s something to build on.

“But there are still things we need to improve on and we’re not whooping and cheering that we’ve got a point.

“We have to win the duels and knock-downs to get control of the game. When we did that we did not use the ball well enough.

“We need to improve as a group. It’s not a blame thing. They all know that. It’s about everyone getting better and improving.

“It took 20-25 minutes to settle down. Sometimes you get that first day of the season – and the pitch was very lively. But we had some good passages of play after that.

“We didn’t start the second half well so we changed things to try to solid us up.”