Still searching for that first win, but Graham Coughlan hopes Mansfield Town have 'laid a ghost to rest' after Stevenage draw

The Stags are still looking for their first win of the season, but today's stalemate ended a three-game losing streak as they earned their second clean sheet of the campaign.

"Given the circumstances in which we found ourselves in in the last couple of weeks - I look at the Leyton Orient game, the Exeter game and Newport game - we were carrying a little bit of baggage, a little bit of negativity and those lads have hopefully dispelled that," Coughlan told BBC Radio Nottingham."They've proved they can keep clean sheets, they can keep the ball out of the net and they can compete.

"They've proved that we don't fold and stand up to the challenge.

"I'm sure one or two fans there maybe thought 'here we go again', this is another smash and grab, but we dispelled that and laid a ghost to rest.

"Hopefully, we can now address the other end of the pitch."

Both teams rattled the woodwork in an afternoon where neither could force a breakthrough.

"We hit the post we hit the crossbar. We had one or two little chances that didn't go in," Coughlan added.

"Had we done enough to win a game of football? You could see by their celebrations at the end of the game, they were delighted to come away with a point.

"They banked up, they blocked up, stuffed up the goal and made it hard for us to drop off the half way line.

"We're trying to develop a footballing team here, to crash the ball into the box and play off seconds, it was a way we could have played, but I do believe in the process, I believe in what we're doing and I believe in the players.

"Stevenage have come to do a job, they were overjoyed. We have to understand we've always been a scalp in this division."

MATCH REPORT: Stags 0 Stevenage 0