How losing to York City helped fire Mansfield Town to title glory

Matty Blair headed an extra-time winner as Stags were beaten 1-0 by the Minstermen to exit the 2012 play-offs 2-1 on aggregate.

But Cox firmly believes that the pain of that defeat helped fire his men to promotion glory the following season.

“We had to take it on the chin, there was a lot of hurt after how it finished,” he said.

“I thought we were good enough to go up in the play-offs that year, but we had to put it down to experience, put it to bed straight away and come back stronger.

“We were all hurting. We were developing a real good feel-good factor across the whole club.

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“There was belief that we could achieve something that we hadn’t been close to in the National League.”

To this day Cox, who took charge of the club in May 2011, still feels aggrieved by the controversial decision to red-card star striker Matt Green during the first leg.

It is a decision which Cox felt changed the whole dynamics of the finely-balanced tie.

“Losing your top scorer in those sort of games goes against you and it did that year,” he added.

“Without him in the second leg we were a different side, we were ultra-professional in the first leg.

“I still say to this day it was not a sending off. He was our catalyst in terms of scoring goals and winning us games, it can have a negative impact on the rest of the team.”

Cox had been given a three year plan to get Mansfield back into the EFL, with work beginning on strengthening Stags as they embarked on year two of the plan.

In Cox’s eyes Mansfield were building nicely and were already ahead of his target.

“Any successful team needs some time where you build something,” he said.

“John (Radford) gave me a three year plan and the plan was to get out of the Conference in year three.

“I’m a very impatient guy and I used to keep saying to John, we can do it in the first year.

“I think we could have done it as well if Matt Green hadn’t been sent off in the first leg.

“We worked hard and changed our mindset through the first season and there was a change in mindset from the supporters, we were growing as a club.

“It was pleasing to see it all coming together.

“It is a tough league that deserves respect, football respects nobody. There are so many giants who have fallen down the ladder.

“When I came in we were a mid-table non-league side, some people still thought we were still a league club.

“We got to grips with that realisation in time. We had to go and impose ourselves and not expect to win because we were a former league side.

“I have a lot of pride at what we achieved so quickly.”

Cox was speaking to the Mansfield Matters Podcast - you can hear his interview in full on Saturday at 3pm by visiting www.mtfcmatters.co.uk

The interview forms part of the pledge of three Stags supporters' who are filling the void left by Football by creating new podcast content, including interviews with former players/staff, and much more.

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