Opinion: Bigger picture gives hope that Mansfield Town will soon start to rack up the points
As starts to the season go it's been a little underwhelming and yet to really get going for Stags.
Performances - and consequently results - have been somewhat mixed with the stunning win over Luton more than wiped out by the drubbing at Reading.
Mansfield are now without a win in four as we sit out the international break, with slow starts, questionable moments of defending and being on the wrong end of decisions all proving to be costly.
Football, especially the further into the season we get, is all about results and positions in the league table.
Mansfield are 17th right now with just eight points from seven matches. But beneath those stark stats there’s small signs that Stags are slowly finding their feet and getting ready to go up through the gears.
While it is indeed four without a win, it’s also two games without defeat and perhaps the early stages of an unbeaten run being built.
It’s also two games where Stags have had to dig super deep and call on every ounce of their reserves of resolve and character.
Being a successful football team is not just about having good players. It’s about having a healthy mix of fight, desire and good old fashioned team spirit to go with that talent. It’s a combination that stood Stags in good stead last season. It’s a mix that was very much on show in the draws with Huddersfield and Burton, where adversity was shrugged off and two potentially valuable points won.
Where Stags have gone wrong so far, of course, is defensively. Conceding 13 times in seven games isn’t going to get you very far.
It’s something Stags prided themselves oin last season but they haven’t got it quite right this time around.
The figures are somewhat distorted with eight goals against in six games, when Reading is excluded, making slightly more palatable reading.
Defensively Reading was awful and best forgotten, as was the first half up at Bradford where Harry Lewis did his bit to keep things respectable.
Those frailties though may be largely behind Stags with just two goals shipped in the last 2.5 games in which the keeper has, in reality, had very little to do. Admittedly the two Burton goals didn’t make great defensive viewing with Stags not helping their cause in the build-up to either goal. But, aside from a couple of disappointing lapses, Stags have started to look like their old solid self.
This season was all about adding goals to that brilliant rearguard and Nigel Clough recruited brilliantly to bring in Michael Smith, David McGoldrick and former loanee Jon Russell. It’s a combination Stags have not yet been able to field in the same game and it’s going to be very intriguing to see how much firepower Mansfield will possess when that trio is in the same starting eleven.
Smith has settled in brilliantly and is already one of the first names on Clough’s team-sheet.
It’s been a tougher start for McGoldrick who is yet to open his Mansfield account and really get going. McGoldrick has started the last two games alongside Smith, in what appears to be Nigel’s preferred pairing, and he looked bright and dangerous at Burton. His finish for his first disallowed goal was sublime and shows just what a good player he is. Goals will inevitably soon come his way.
It was great to see Russell become a permanent summer signing and the stunning win over Luton showed exactly why Clough was so keen to bag his man. Russell bagged a brilliant brace that day before he left the pitch with a knock.
He’s not played since and it’s no coincidence that Stags have scored just twice in the following four games, during which they have huffed and puffed but been unable to find the key to unlocking the opposition. A returning Russell will undoubtedly give Stags that much-needed edge.
Whether it’s 50/50 offside decisions, an individual mistake or the woodwork having its say, football is all about the fine margins deciding where the points go. A lot of those margins haven’t gone Stags their way.
You can only control the controllable and Stags have been guilty of being a little rusty in areas and need to continue to address those areas in the coming games to progress to where they want to be.
It’s a group of players, though, that are too good to continue to flounder and struggle for results and I’ve no doubt the wins will soon start to follow.
My early season verdict: 6/10, inconsistent but has plenty more to offer.