Stags seal loan deal for Premier League youngster, reveals Evans
The Stags manager confirmed the switch for an unnamed player was completed after watching his side clinch a 2-1 win over Morecambe on Saturday.
Danny Rose levelled matters for Mansfield to cancel out Callum Lang’s opener before Jimmy Spencer got the final touch to complete the aways side’s comeback.
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Hide AdAnd Evans was clearly excited at the prospect of working with his new addition as the Stags creep into the League Two automatic promotion spots with the win.
“He’s another addition we look forward to working with,” said Evans.
“He’s not going to be one who catches people’s minds. He’s young and coming from a Premier League club on loan.
“He reminds me so much of Ben Whiteman. We tried to get him at the start of the window and their sporting director told me ‘we’re not ready yet’.
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Hide Ad“Things change and bingo, we got the call yesterday morning. The kid had four or five options, all of which were in League One apart from us.
“I spoke to the kid for about half an hour on the phone and I was buzzing when he phones me back about half an hour later and said ‘I’d love to come to you guys’.
And added: “Ben Whiteman’s a young man who, had we gone up, he would have stayed here. He’s that type of player who can play, he’s intelligent, he can get a goal.
“He’s a young man who is continuing his education in football and he’s chosen Mansfield Town. Mrs Radford, who made the call to their sporting director, thank you; enjoy your glass of wine tonight.”
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Hide AdMansfield trailed at the break when Lang pounced on Krystian Pearce’s back pass to goalkeeper Conrad Logan. Lang rounded the keeper and slotted into an empty net on 31 minutes.
Evans said: “It was a poor first half from our point of view. It was a scrappy game. I though Morecambe were better than us, not by much. Was it offside? I think a lot of Morecambe on the bench had some sympathy with us.
“Krystian makes a mistake and they score. I wasn’t happy at half time. I had a few strong words with all of them, not just some of them, all of them. And we made the changes.
“It was the worst pitch of the season. It’s so heavy and sodden. I wouldn’t describe it as an Alfie Potter type of surface, and Alfie has been brilliant for us.
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Hide Ad“We brought two lads on who have been great in training. Paul Anderson probably shaking his head why he’s not been in the team and Will Atkinson, we’ve had seven, eight, nine League One managers ring me up about taking him on loan.
“Will’s been adament ‘I want to stay, I want to fight, I want to get back in’. I said to both him and Ando at the end there that performances talk at this football club, not words of mouth.”
Stags were rewarded for a much-improved second half display with goals from Rose on 70 minutes before Spencer stole all three points for the visitors four minutes into injury time.
“We suddenly had some energy,” said Evans on the second half performance. “We got on the front foot. We had some cohesion. It’s a bog of a pitch but you can still play football.
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Hide Ad“I thought some of the passages of play in midfield from one side to the other, Mal Benning overlapping, CJ Hamilton giving them a problem. I though MacDonald and Anderson were terrific, we controlled the middle, Joe Byrom started passing it, from lumping it first half, to doing what Byrom does better than anyone in the league.
“The front two worked incredibly hard. They workedd hard in the first half but did they work smart, no, did they work hard and smart second half, yes. We introduced Jimmy at the right time and it’s wonderful he gets the goal.”