Plenty of positives in Mansfield Town's first pre-season friendly, says Adam Murray

A 2-0 win was secured thanks to goals from James Baxendale and Adi Yussuf in front of 629 people at the home of the NCEL Premier Division outfit.

And Murray says it was good to see his troops back in action after just a week back in training.

He said: “It was a good work out and we got a lot of good pictures out that we wanted to paint.

“We knew that getting the lads out so early for a pre-season game would mean they’d be a bit rusty and perhaps a bit sluggish at times but I thought some of the play was excellent and overall I’m very happy with the start.

“The biggest thing was getting the lads back into a game situation, like we did last year. It gets everyone’s mind back on the game scenario and gets the partnerships working too.

“There’s been a lot of physical work this week so it was important to get working with the ball again. There were some good individual displays out there and in the second-half I thought we penetrated a lot better, but the next five weeks will be about seeing what works and doesn’t work so it’s good to get underway.”

Murray also added that George Taft and Lee Collins weren’t included as a precautionary measure and that he expects to see them back in action over the next week.