Mansfield Town suffer sixth straight defeat after being beaten by Northampton Town
Stags slipped to a sixth straight defeat after a 1-0 loss at home to Northampton Town on Friday night.
Cameron McGeehan’s second half header proved to be the difference on a disappointing night for below-par Mansfield.
In truth Stags had been fortunate to go in level at the break following a half of football in which they did themselves no favours with wasteful possession featuring all too often.
Luckily for Stags, the visitors did them a favour with Sam Hoskins producing a dire 20th minute spot-kick after a Christy Pym foul to keep the scores level.
But there was no such charity being dished out after half-time with the visitors coming out with a clear purpose and a clear control of the opening stages of the second half.
And they were rewarded for their industry when McGeehan powered his header home to give Northampton a precious lead that they would hold on to.
The opener sparked Mansfield’s best spell of the game with the resolute visitors sitting back to protect the points.
With time ebbing away fortune failed to shine on Stags with Jordan Rhodes going inches wide with a header which you would have put the mortgage on him scoring.
The struggling hosts were left further frustrated when Jordan Willis made a brilliant goal-line clearance to keep out another Rhodes header and leave Stags empty handed.
Football ultimately is of course all about the points, but Stags can at least take some comfort from their response to falling behind and their efforts to get back into the contest rather than crumbling with heads down.
Loanee Caylan Vickers also showed glimpses of what he can down with some decent breaks down the left flank before fading out of the game.
Rhodes came in to Stags to offering cover for Lee Gregory and bang in some goals. Although he only did one of those things on Friday night, the signs are certainly there that the second mission will certainly be achieved in the remainder of the campaign.
Stags were perhaps lucky to not trail inside the opening seconds after Tom Eaves could only fire straight at the keeper after finding space inside the box.
George Maris saw a shot from distance blocked on 11 minutes as Stags grew into the game after a slow start.
The Cobblers were given a glorious chance to hit the front when Pym flattened Liam Shaw in a race for the ball on 19 minutes.
But Sam Hoskins scuffed his spot-kick wide, though Pym went the right way and would most likely have saved it had Hoskins found the target.
Rhodes replaced Gregory on 32 minutes after the Stags forward went down with an off-the-ball injury.
cVickers smashed a powerful shot narrowly over on 39 minutes after a battling run.
Tariqe Fosu saw a long-range effort deflected wide as the Cobblers started the second half strongly.
But Cameron McGeehan headed home Mitch Pinnock’s resulting corner to give Northampton a deserved lead on 55 minutes.
Jordan Rhodes had a shot saved moments later, before Nik Tzanev acrobatically saved an Aaron Lewis header.
Lucas Akins looped a shot just over on 65 minutes before Pinnock forced Pym into a flying save with 15 minutes to go.
Jordan Rhodes was inches away from an equaliser with an 83rd minute header, before the loan man saw another header cleared off the line.