Another draw but Mansfield Town starting to get back to their best believes boss Nigel Clough

Stags had won five in a row but have now been held to four draws in succession, this being a second 0-0 at home in two games.

But, after being second best in the first half, Mansfield were much more lively after the break and could have won it on another day.

“We are nine unbeaten but know we are not playing anywhere near as fluently as we can,” he said.

“But it is another clean sheet here – that's four on the spin now which is encouraging.

“We want to get back to winning, But if you can't win then don't lose. This time last year we were losing these games.

“We should have won that. I thought it was a pretty even game between two honest sides.

“For the first 35 minutes they were superior to us and had a few efforts and half chances.

“But I thought we got on it for the last 10-15 minutes before half-time and was very encouraged by our second half display.”

He added: “We were somewhere back near to where we were a few weeks ago.

“We played with a bit more fluency and had a lot of the ball when we changed to 4-3-3.

“I thought if anyone was going to win it second half then we were.

“We just needed a break in that six yard box.

“With that little bit of quality or luck we win that game.”

Will Evans had Stags' best first half chance saved by Joe Whitworth while Pierce Sweeney hit his own post after the break and Victor Adeboyejo and Stephen McLaughlin came close to winners.

“Will Evans had the best chance of the first half. It was a good save,” said Clough.

“Maybe he could have taken it on an extra step. A fully confident Will Evans puts that away.”

Manafield were without regular keeper Liam Roberts, which saw new signing Harry Lewis keep clean sheet on his debut.

“Liam has got a nasty bug which he picked up Wednesday night/Thursday morning so it shows the importance of having a very experienced number two,” said Clough.

“Harry has been superb in training all week, just slotted in and looked like he'd been playing for three or four months and we were very pleased indeed.”

Mansfield also lost captain Ryan Sweeney at half-time and he added: “Sweens is injured – he had tweaked his calf, so it was an enforced change.”