STAGS BLOG: Fans pleased by two great away displays

I am, however, going to start this blog talking about the news that arguably Stags’ best signing in the summer, Mal Benning, is going to be out for months after picking up a cruciate ligament injury.

I feel really sorry for Mal and hope he comes back quickly from his injury just like Chris Clements seems to, and he hits even more spectacular goals for us.

All of us Stags fans wish you a speedy recovery Mal!

As this happened though Murray acted quickly and surprisingly brought Blair Adams in from Notts Clownty, this being a little controversial but after the reports I’ve got this week from games against Yeovil and Portsmouth he’s fitted in brilliantly and we are all glad he’s now playing for the better team in Nottinghamshire!

I now go to the game against Yeovil and from what I’ve heard we weren’t at our best but in the 100th minute we scored a winner through Reggie Lambe.

Reggie does get stick at times but from what I’ve been told he had a good game against Yeovil.

Maybe it was a bit of karma from the Bristol Rovers game and I was running through the house celebrating!

I also heard that Adams was man of the match and the defence was superb, including Mitchell Rose who filled in at right back for the suspended Nicky Hunt and Lee Collins who came in for Kristian Pearce.

I’m going to mention Lee more later on in my blog.

There was also the news in midweek that young right back Liam Marsden had joined Guiseley in the National League on loan for the month. Hopefully this will do him good and he comes back ready to fight for the right back position with captain Nicky Hunt.

Now on to the well-earned draw at Portsmouth, this undoubtably being the hardest ground we will go to this season.

These were the quotes I got from a friend from the match: “Very good game, they had the edge and we hung on at the end but a solid performance. Plenty of passion and spirit shown. The never-say-die attitude was there in abundance!”

There was also two clean sheets in a row and as I stated earlier Lee Collins being immense and the ever present Ryan Tafazolli being awesome as well.

But I must admit for Lee it must have been hard being out of the team for so long and coming in and settling in straight away so a lot of credit has to go to him for that.

I also have to say well done to the near 400 Stags fans that went as I heard they were awesome so well done to the friends who went and gave me reports from the games.

We now await the news of who we will get in the FA Cup draw on Monday and to be honest at this moment in time I’d take absolutely anybody so bring it on!