LOMAS ON STAGS: Cup euphoria but growing unease over Mansfield Town’s league form

After a great start to last season, Mansfield flirted with the drop before easing themselves to safety.

But the poor 1-0 defeat at struggling Blackpool on Tuesday night was a sixth league game without a win and only three goals in those six fixtures.

Four of them were at least drawn, including decent away points at Plymouth and Stevenage, where Stags were robbed of all three at the death by decisions by the officials.

But it is still only four points from a possible 18 and has alarm bells starting to ring.

A very tight League One table still has Stags sitting in mid-table in 15th, but the gap to the drop zone is only six points.

Football is all about highs and lows and rarely can there have been such a high for Stags as making history in winning at Premier League Burnley and three days later dip to a massive low in losing at a poor Blackpool side, who had only won once in eight league games.

If Stags had been able to even hit third gear it would probably have been enough to beat a poor Seasiders side lacking in confidence after a 4-0 home hammering by Plymouth at the weekend.

But, depsite freshening up the side with four changes and dominating the first 20 minutes, the visitors lacked any cutting edge and fell behind to a poor goal with Niall Ennis left unmarked in the box to slot home the winner.

Mansfield huffed and puffed but failed to seriously trouble keeper Perry Farrell-Peacock all night.

One big decision went against the visitors as on 12 minutes Victory Adeboyejo was clearly held in the box and prevented from reaching the ball.

It looked a penalty in real time and even more so on the replay. But nothing was given.

The defence played well and Liam Roberts did all he needed to do. And skipper Louis Reed tried his best to get things going from midfield.

But the rest of the side failed to shine in a game that had 0-0 written all over it and that should have at least earned a point to reach Nigel Clough's next target of 40 points.

Oliver Irow and Luke Bolton were given wide roles to provide ammunition for big striker Adeboyejo in the middle, but service was very poor.

Jon Russell is still struggling to stamp his authority on a game and Clough admits he is still trying to find the perfect role for the Barnsley loanee.

The tall Jamaican international looks so composed when on the ball and shows flashes of his talent, but it is all coming to nothing in the end for him at the moment.

With 16 games to play still in 10 busy weeks, Clough has little option but to keep shuffling his pack to keep them fresh and hoping he has no more central defensive injuries with Ryan Sweeney and Baily Cargill unlikely to be back fully fit this season.

A return for talented midfielder Tyler Roberts in the next two weeks will be a big boost with his guile and new Spurs loanee George Abbott could also make a difference when fit based on his form at Notts County last year.

It's good to hear Jordan Bowery is finally back on the grass after his long lay-off too as he can fill in for almost every position up front or at the back, a commodity currently much needed.

Clough thinks his side need to win four of the last 16 games to be safe, but they will do extemely well to make one of them this Saturday when high-flying Lincoln City are the visitors, who are surprising everyone by making a serious bid for Championship football.