Mansfield Town top League One touches table

It is a startling indication of how close Nigel Clough's men are to being a successful side at this level ahead of this Saturday's trip to Bristol Rovers.

In so many games on the 14-game winless run, Stags dominated for long spells, created chances and had no luck of the bounce in the opposition box.

The run finally ended with a last gasp 2-1 home win over Barnsley when a ball finally broke for them and the stats for that game show Mansfield had 39 touches in the Barnsley box against 10 for the Tykes.

Over the season Stags lead the way with 935 touches in opposition boxes with big-spending Birmingham City second on 900 and Wycome Wanderers third on 897.

Boss Nigel Clough said the club analyst had asked him to guess who the top three would be.

“We went for Birmingham and Wycombe straight away as the top two teams in the way they play,” he said.

“But we found out we are actually top for the number of touches in the opposition penalty area this season.

“When you get a stat like that, you know you are not doing too much wrong.

“We just need balls to drop in the box more and a bit more quality at times.

“The number of times against Wigan at home that the ball bobbled around the box or dropped into the goalkeeper's hands was incredible and it just can't keep going like that.

“You just want your fair share of breaks – nothing more than that. I hope we will get them in the next nine games.

“Lo and behold against Barnsley something dropped for us in the 90th minute when you're least expecting it.

“We will know in the next four games what that win might have done for us.

“We could get ourselves very close to safety.”

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