Mansfield Town boss wants side to be more clinical

Boss Graham Coughlan wants to see his side be better in front of goal.

Stags were beaten 2-0 by Peterborough on Tuesday in a match which saw two different sides play two 60 minute halves.

And Coughlan, who was pleased with the workout, felt the first pre-season outing highlighted the need for his side to be more clinical and better with the ball.

“We did have decent chances but we didn’t convert them,” he said. “We had a similar story to that last season.

“The instruction from now to the start of the season is: ‘let’s start converting our chances.’”

“We wanted to learn, look at them and see why they’re in League One. I think it was a really good learning exercise and a really good workout.

“We had spells with the ball, but should have kept the ball a lot better. When you turn the ball over to good teams like Peterborough, they hurt you.

“We got a lot of leg work into us, so it was a great exercise defensively. We need to keep the ball better and the service into the frontmen needs to be better.”

The fixture saw academy players Joshua Scott and Kyle Tomlin get a run-out as Coughlan aims to blood young players for the gruelling season ahead.

“It’s great to have the young lads on board,” he added. “We’ve been doing a lot of work with the young kids over pre-season.

“We have 14 or 15 senior pro’s at the moment, so that’s an opportunity to include six or seven young kids.

“They’ve worked hard and enjoyed it – it’s probably their first taste of a senior pre-season. Playing against a team like Peterborough will have been a great experience for them.

“We all know it’s going to be a long, hard season. We are going to need a squad, so hopefully one or two of these young kids can step up to the plate.”

Coughlan also revealed wing-back Joe Riley has suffered an ACL injury, which may take ‘six to eight’ months to recover from.