‘We were too cautious at Newport,’ says Stags assistant-boss Adam Murray

And the Stags’ player/assistant-manager said tomorrow’s visit of Cambridge United was now ‘a massive game’ as they look to stay in touch with the promotion race.

“After the run we’ve been on, I don’t think we expected that performance on Tuesday, but I think we went there a bit over-cautious,” he said.

“We spent too much time on the back foot and it ended up putting us on our backsides.

“Newport have been up there all season and you have to respect these teams. You can’t go gung-ho and play three up front, trying to score four goals away from home. You’d end up losing four or five-nil. We had a game plan but it didn’t work.

“That’s what this league is all about and now we have to pick ourselves up again. We’ve agreed we mustn’t beat ourselves up too much about Tuesday.

“If we did we’d be carrying it into training and then still have a hangover from it on Saturday. We have to put it down as a one-off bad day at the office.

“Now we have to focus on what is a massive game on Saturday. Cambridge showed at their place what they can do (they beat Stags 4-1) on their day so we know we’ve got to be on top of our game.”

On a personal note, he added: “Being honest, I have not really enjoyed this season as it’s been stop-start. But I have been working hard in training and playing a good run of games so I now feel probably the best I have felt all season.”