Nigel Clough wants Mansfield Town to stop beating themselves

Stags slumped to a 2-0 defeat at Barrow on Saturday after they paid the price for more errors.

It follows successive away 1-0 losses at Bradford City and Harrogate which saw defensive lapses lead to defeat.

“I’m so frustrated with the blatant errors that we are making,” said Clough. “We are beating ourselves. The last three defeats have been our own undoing.

“The mistakes are being punished but I can't remember the last time an opposition team made the errors that we are making.

“They are clear and obvious ones and you will be punished at most levels for those sorts of errors.”

It is an error of concern that Clough is dissecting with his players as they look to learn and cut out the errors.

“We are discussing it with the players as to what is going through their minds and why they do what they do on the pitch,” added Clough.

“A professional player should always be able to come up with a reason for doing what they did.

“When they make a mistake not doing the right thing then that is a different story.

“What we don't do after the game is give people apat on the back and say bad luck, if you've made an error you shouldn't have done.

“We have to look at how they will deal with it in the next game. You have to put it behind you and move on.

“Top players can put it out of their minds and its how they deal with the mistakes and when things are going badly.”

Mansfield have now won just one of their last eight games and have scored just once in 468 minutes of football.

And Clough wants to see his players do more to make the ball drop their way.

“Not a lot is dropping for us but we have to do more to make the ball drop for us,” he said.

“When you are not scoring regularly it is more difficult to do. We are also not creating enough chances from the good positions we are in.

“We need to make sure we get on the end of it when a ball is flashed across the face of goal and to anticipate and take a chance.”