Nigel Clough wants Mansfield Town to improve in the final third

Stags slipped to a 1-0 defeat at home to Harrogate last night after failing to make the most of being in good attacking areas.

“I think generally we could’ve had a point from the game. If we’d have got a goal, we might have gone and got the second,” he told iFollow Stags.

“But the biggest disappointment is not hitting the target tonight – I think we registered one shot on target tonight from quite a bit of play.

“We had more than enough situations tonight to create chances and get goals, and we failed to do that.

Mansfield Town’s unbeaten run comes to an end

“The biggest disappointment was in and around their penalty area. We have to do better and put better quality balls in.

“That’s one of the reasons why we are where we are. There were bags of effort, a lot of scrapping, tackling, heading, but when we get in that final third, we have to do more.

“We’ve just got to put better quality balls into the penalty area and do it more often.

“In the positions that we were in, don’t turn the opportunity down to cross the ball. Let’s put the ball into the box and see if something drops.

“We didn’t test them enough. There was some good play to get in and around the penalty area, but not enough from there.”

They host Dagenham and Redbridge on Sunday in the FA Cup second round, where they will go in search of a first home win of the season as well as the chance to set up a potentially lucrative third round tie.