Mansfield boss Paul Cox happy as players repay his faith with Cambridge win

PAUL Cox was delighted to see his faith in his starting XI pay off today as Mansfield Town bounced back to beat Cambridge 3-1 at home.

Cox decided to send out an unchanged team, despite them flopping 2-0 at Newport in midweek for which he criticised them for dropping their standards, and he said: “The players know I was disappointed we let our standards slip on Tuesday. But I kept the same team, and the lads shoved it back down my throat again today which I enjoy.

“It wasn’t for the faint-hearted early on. I thought Cambridge came out really strongly and put us on the back foot. After 15-20 minutes it could have been 2-2 or even 3-3.

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“But, when we had settled down, we finished the first half well and had some great chances. Alan Marriott has made a couple of good saves and we’ve had one or two chances kicked away from their line. I don’t know how they kept some of them out.

“Then the second half was a purely professional performance.

“That is becoming a hard pitch to play on and I think they played it better then we did for the first 20 minutes.

Cambridge director of football Jez George said: “What is said behind closed doors, stays behind closed doors. But Richard Money (head coach) is fuming over our defending.

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“We are conceding too many goals and, if you concede goals, you don’t win games.

“Sometimes the players have got to take a look at themselves and take responsibility.

“When we played football, we looked quite dangerous. But we didn’t defend well. You have to defend what the opposition throw at you and we haven’t done that.

“The 11 players out there today were more than good enough to get a result in this league.”