Mansfield Town boss Nigel Clough hoping luck will turn after a second defeat in a row
Stags missed good chances and had a late equaliser ruled out as Luke McCormick’s 49th minute strike proved enough to win the day for the Pirates.
“We are getting into promising positions with some excellent play but we are not getting any reward or anything at the end of them,” said Clough
“On another day you could comfortably win that game two or three nil without doing too much differently. We just need more quality from our strikers.
“Hopefully it will balance out and we will start getting something from the games that our performances deserve.
You can’t say we played badly today.
“Most of what we did today was again very good, similar to Wrexham, but were are just not getting the breaks in the penalty area and one bit of quality has defeated us. It was two or three crisp passes and that is the quality in League One.”
Stags did create chances and on another day Will Evans could have finished with a hat-trick.
“We need better finishing and better quality in and around the final third,” said Clough.
“Everyone needs to relax a bit more too.
“I think Will Evans is hurrying his chances at the moment. He has had two very good chances today and hit them both first time when he had time to have a touch for a bit more of an assured finish.
“But when you have not scored for a bit and you are a bit nervy then you tend to snatch at them. When you are in a good vein of scoring you take that extra touch and put them away.”
It did not help that Stags were missing top scorer Lee Gregory through an injury and they lost Frazer Blake-Tracy during the game too.
“When your leading scorer is out on that sort of day at home, you are missing someone to put the ball in the net or provide that bit of quality – and he wasn’t there,” said Clough.
“His knee just swelled up a bit on Monday and Tuesday. We left it a bit and he tried to train yesterday but it was no good.
“So we will see how it settles down over the weekend.
“We will have to see how Frazer is. And Baily Cargill missed out as he was ill this morning.”
On the disallowed goal, he added: “Lewis smashed the ball across and it hit Ben Waine’s arm – there was nothing he could do about it. It then dropped for George Maris.
“That seems to be the way it’s going at the moment.”
Stags next head for leaders Wycombe Wanders on Tuesday night and Clough said: “We now have three tough away games and I hope it turns round and we get a bit of fortune. We just have to keep going.”
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