Mansfield Town boss blasts Harrogate Town winner as criminal

Aaron Martin struck the only goal of the game seconds into the second half as Stags slipped to a third straight defeat.

“The goal we gave away is absolutely criminal and you’re not going to get anything from matches if you give goals away like that,” he said,

“Ten seconds after half-time, from the kick-off, we haven’t been disappointed that much in the last three months.

“But to give the game away as we did tonight, we are bitterly, bitterly disappointed.”

Stags had created a number of good chances in the first half with Ollie Clarke being denied in a one-on-one with the keeper.

Ferrand Rawson also missed a good headed chance from a corner.

But Stags switched off after the restart and were punished to leave Clough highly frustrated.

“When you come out in the second-half, you want to continue that, but to give them a goal as we did,” he said. “You saw exactly what happened at our stadium a few months ago, when they get 1-0 up they work unbelievably hard to stop you then.

“It’s just giving the goal away as we did. If someone goes round us and sticks one in the top corner, we hold our hands up. But we’ve gifted the game away tonight.

“I don’t know if we’re feeling sorry for ourselves after the last two defeats, but we don’t want to revert time and go back to how we were three or four months ago. It’s very important we don’t do that.

“The break that we had – we talked about losing the momentum – that, without a doubt, has affected us. Three defeats on the spin is very, very difficult to take.”

“I’ve learned that we are where we are in the league for a reason. The task is still the same – survive this season, and build for next season.”