"Point the fingers in my direction!" Graham Coughlan calls on Mansfield Town detractors to back the Stags squad and watch them improve

Graham Coughlan launched a defence of Mansfield Town keeper Marek Stech and told detractors to ‘point the finger at my direction’.

The Czech keeper fumbled the ball into his own net to give Bradford City an early lead at One Call Stadium today.

That proved a pivotal moment as the Bantams won 3-1, seeing winless Town drop into the bottom two.

“Bradford took their chances and capitalised on an error. It deflates us and gave them a massive lift at a crucial time in the game,” Coughlan reflected.

"They key moment again was the error. We started well, had numerous chances. It was encouraging then we get a car crash of a moment."

However, Coughlan refused to pin the blame at Stech’s door.

"He's my goalkeeper. I brought him to the football club. I have tremendous faith and trust in him,” he added.

"He's hurting, the goalie's hurting. He's much better than where he is at the moment. He's a top, top goalie.

"The dressing room's hurting."

It’s not just Stech the manager is backing.

Coughlan believes the squad can produce better performances and results than they have done so far… but he says the confidence in the camp must improve.

"It's not performances, it's results. And we're not getting results at this time,” he said.

"We'll have to dust ourselves down, galvanise ourselves. We'll come in in the morning, get ourselves ready for the next challenge.

"We will have harsh words and have to make serious alterations. They're my group of players. There will be a lot of stick being chucked about and that has to be chucked at me.

"It can't be chucked at the players. Point the fingers in my direction. My players don't deliberately go out to lose games of football.

"It's a tough place right now stood here but I want them to give me some ammunition.

"They are not giving a true reflection of themselves, every one of them is better than results suggest.

"They are far better than where we are in the table.

"They are far better than where we are now mentally."