Confidence key for Mansfield – Coughlan

Posted Friday, December 27, 2019 by PA

New Mansfield boss Graham Coughlan was delighted to see his side battle back for an unlikely point with two late goals earning a 2-2 home draw with Port Vale.

Although the result extended Town’s winless run, Coughlan believes all his charges are lacking is confidence.

“Hopefully today will give them confidence. They are creating chances,” he said after CJ Hamilton’s 93rd-minute equaliser.

“One thing is for sure – we are getting honesty, we’re getting hard work, we’re getting graft, we’re getting commitment from the players – and that’s a start.

“I am probably going to sound like a broken record, but that’s another game at home we should have won. It was two points dropped.

“But I loved the character, I loved them rolling their sleeves up and fighting back into the game.

“Now they have shown me character and what they are made of, that they can come back in the face of adversity. That’s a massive positive.

“We don’t look as if we have composure in front of goal and that’s obviously down to self-belief and confidence.”

Stags are now eight games without a win in all competitions, and five home league games without victory, as Coughlan heads for Bradford on Sunday hoping to chalk up his first win as boss at the third attempt.

Danny Rose missed a sitter for Mansfield and David Amoo sent a free header wide for Vale in the first half.

But Vale went ahead on 53 minutes when Nathan Smith got forward to turn home a low Amoo cross and after Rose wasted another good chance, Leon Legge turned home a second from a scramble from a 66th-minute corner.

However, substitute Nicky Maynard instinctively smashed home a first-time finish from a miscued Cristian Montano clearance on 81 minutes to give Mansfield hope and Hamilton levelled in added time with a low, hard ball through everyone from the left.

Vale boss John Askey said: “It’s really disappointing for everybody – especially the players. They played some really good football and created quite a few chances.

“To be 2-0 up with 10 minutes to go, you should see the game out. But we made a mistake for their first goal which changes everything. People don’t make mistakes on purpose, but we have to improve.

“Even at 2-1 you still think you should see it out and we are disappointed with the second goal.

“The most pleasing thing was we played some really good football. If we keep playing like that and working as hard as that, we should start to win games.”