Mansfield Town keeper Bobby Olejnik says inexperience may have cost Stags in thrilling finale

A little bit of inexperience might have cost Mansfield Town in Saturday’s dramatic injury-time defeat to Forest Green Rovers.
Bobby Olejnik. (Photo: James Williamson)Bobby Olejnik. (Photo: James Williamson)
Bobby Olejnik. (Photo: James Williamson)

That’s the view of recalled keeper Bobby Olejnik, who said the Stags should probably have settled for a 3-3 draw after pulling level in the 90th minute through Nicky Maynard.

Instead, he said they went chasing a winner and were caught out at the other end as Aaron Collins struck a crushing blow for the visitors to deny the Stags even a point.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“To get back into the game against a top side – to score at 3-3 the way Nicky (Maynard) did - and concede last minute is very frustrating. I think that sums our season up at the moment,” he said.

“I think we managed the game quite well, but I think there might have been a bit of a, because we’ve scored, let’s try again (to get another goal).

“Perhaps there was a bit of inexperience where some of the younger players can learn from such an experience.

“I am not saying it was their fault, but as an older player you’ve been there a few times and you think we’ve just scored and we should try and probably take our foot off the gas.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Maybe we got caught up with the fans a bit and it’s a lesson to be learnt.

“In a really weird way it’s almost nice to hit rock bottom because there’s nowhere else to go. You can only then go up.

“To concede at the death like that is never nice, especially the way the game had gone.”

The Stags had taken a 2-0 lead through CJ Hamilton and striker Danny Rose before Rovers turned it around to lead 3-2.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Olejnik added: “We did well and then had a mad 10 to 15 minutes – the five minutes before half-time and the 10 to 15 minutes afterwards.

“This season we seem to have been better playing on the back foot, which we have shown against teams like Port Vale, coming back in the last minute, and obviously we thought we had done it again.”

Related topics: