New Mansfield Town boss Graham Coughlan promises 'up and at em' in your face football

Coughlan faces a huge task to lift the struggling Stags up the League Two table, but has promised the very least fans can expect and believes he has seen where some of the problems lie.

“I like up and at 'em and in your face, high energy, high tempo football,” he said.

“I love balls going down the side of the pitch and into the box, giving the strikers something to attack. You've got to move the ball.

“We will make mistakes and we may get beaten every now and again, but we'll be honest and hard-working and wear that jersey with pride. That's all I ask of the players.

“I have been living in this part of the country for the past 20 years and it's an honest hard-working area. That's what I am and the background I have come from.

“That's all we drummed into the players at Bristol Rovers and what has been drummed into me all my career and all my life from my parents. If you're not honest and hard-working you won't have any place at this football club.”

Coughlan has already studied video of Stags this season and begun to build a picture.

“The club as a whole has been struggling this season confidence-wise,” he said.

“I looked at some of the training clips and games and we are making silly basic errors.

“We are not pressing or squeezing enough, there is no cohesion to our play and we look like, when we get the ball, what are we going to do with it next? Where are we going? What are our aims?

“Stags fans don't need me to tell them the basics are you put it in at one one end and keep it out the other. It just needs reaffirming to the players.”

Coughlan has already proved he can turn a struggling club around, hoisting Bristol Rovers from the relegation zone in League One to the play-offs spots.

“We had a tough challenge when we went in and, if I am being honest, Bristol Rovers fans would agree, we were set for League Two,” he said.

“Again I think it was about belief and confidence. It all had to be re-installed in the players and show them where they were heading if they didn't get their act together.

“They needed some structure and morale. Our unity got stronger.

“I had a tremendous support network with the chief executive.”

He continued: “There was a lot of negativity surrounding the club.

“We just went in and spelt it out to the players – it is what it is and it was what it was.

“The lads just got on with it and they were brilliant.

“I made some good additions – even if I do say so myself – in January with some men, some leaders, and a goalscorer.

“And we increased our work output and training time, giving the players clear targets, set goals and clear objectives.

“It just came off as I had a tremendous group of players – and I see very much the same group of players here with the same issues and same problems I inherited at Bristol Rovers.”