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Archived News from December 2013

MURRAY, TAFAZOLLI, MARK YAYES REACTION
31st December 2013 15:20


Paul Cox sent Adam Murray to do the pre-match and post-match press interviews. Murray explained that Cox was spending time getting around talking to all the players.

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Murray: Huge effort was rewarded
mansfieldtown.net

Assistant Manager Adam Murray believes the significance of today’s victory at Cheltenham Town was shown in our players’ post-match celebrations.

Read more at http://www.mansfieldtown.net/news/article/murray-huge-effort-was-rewarded-1262569.aspx?#wYrVWFBPWOI6lpV6.99

Our side triumphed 2-1 at Whaddon Road thanks to first half goals from Anthony Howell and Matt Rhead, to finally end their 13-match winless run in Sky Bet League Two.

“That dressing room right now is like we’ve just won the FA Cup. It means so much to the players,” said Murray, who was speaking to the press afterwards.

“Hopefully that is now the platform we need to move on and we’ve got a massive game on New Year’s Day, but I’m just glad the huge effort today has been rewarded.

“We’re over the moon, but we’re not getting carried away. It’s one win and if we don’t back it up with a result on Wednesday, it will mean nothing.

“Let’s enjoy it for now, but we then have to concentrate on the next game as it comes very quickly.”

Murray added: “It’s always been a fine line, but it’s hurt the players when people have questioned their pride and said they don’t deserve to wear the shirt.

“There have been a few meetings between staff and players this week. We know we need a new direction with the squad and need to add some extra quality.

“This has been a big step up and we’ve been caught out, but the manager is working on that right now.

“You’ll see a bit of movement [during the transfer window] as we know the boys need help. We need some experienced [players with] League Two intelligence coming in.”

Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that Jamie McGuire (groin) and Matt Rhead (ankle) picked up knows in today’s vital victory.

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Stags’ celebrations say it all, says Adam Murray
chad.co.uk

Stags assistant boss Adam Murray said the noisy dressing room celebrations of joy and relief told their own story after Mansfield Town ended a miserable run of 13 League wins without victory by beating Cheltenham Town 2-1 away from home this afternoon.

http://www.chad.co.uk/sport/mansfield-town/stags-celebrations-say-it-all-says-adam-murray-1-6341419

With manager Paul Cox passing press duties onto Murray for the day as he tried to do extra individual coaching with his players before kick-off, Murray said: “Obviously that was a huge result and the last 15 minutes showed the anxiety and what that meant to the boys to hold onto it.

“Cheltenham are a good team and on a good run of results.

“It has always been a fine line. But it has hurt the players when people have questioned their pride and said they don’t deserve to wear the shirt after what they’ve done the last two years at the club.

“That dressing room right now is like we’ve just won the FA Cup. It means so much to them.

“Hopefully that is now the platform we need to move on and we have a massive game on New Year’s Day.

“There have been a few meetings between staff and players this week. We know we need a new direction with the squad and need to add some extra quality.

“This has been a big step up and we have been caught out.

“The manager is working on that right now. You will see a bit of movement as we know the boys need help. We need some experienced League Two intelligence coming in.”

He added: “I am just glad the huge effort today has been rewarded.

“We are over the moon, but we are not getting carried away. It is one win and if we don’t back it up with a result on Wednesday, it will mean nothing.

“Let’s enjoy it for now, but we then have to concentrate on the next game as it comes very quickly.”

Stags will check on the fitness of Jamie McGuire (groin) and Matt Rhead (ankle) before the Burton game on Wednesday after both picked up knocks today.

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Tafazolli: Victory was huge
mansfieldtown.net

Defender Ryan Tafazolli believes he produced his best performance in a Mansfield Town shirt in our 2-1 victory at Cheltenham Town yesterday.

Read more at http://www.mansfieldtown.net/news/article/tafazolli-victory-was-huge-1263410.aspx#tRpxWlgEXB6bvQh0.99

The Stags went into the half-time break with a 2-0 lead courtesy of goals from Anthony Howell and Matt Rhead, before the hosts pulled a goal back with only four minutes remaining to set up a nail-biting finale.

But our team held on to record a vital three points, which lifts us to 19th position in Sky Bet League Two, and ended a 13-match winless streak.

Speaking afterwards, Tafazolli said: “I think personally I had a good performance at Chesterfield as well, but today we topped it because there was a lot of pressure and we had to maintain resilience throughout the 90 minutes.

“To be fair, the lads that played against Accrington didn’t do too badly, so I was surprised when the gaffer threw me in the line-up. But I’m very grateful that he did and I think I took my chance and now we have all three points.

“We’ve been working hard during the Christmas period and have stayed professional throughout the Christmas break, knowing that it would just be an amount of time before we got all three points, as well as putting in a good performance.

“All I can do is keep working hard, focussing on my strengths and weaknesses on the training ground, then hopefully play well when it comes to a matchday to keep my place in the team.”

The 22-year-old revealed how the rest of our side were delighted following this crucial victory, but has urged our players to remain focussed heading into the New Year.

He continued: “We should get the fireworks into the changing rooms to be honest - it’s that crazy in there. However, we know it’s just the start of our season to be honest, and we need to step up from here. We can’t just win one game and get complacent again.

“Just like Chesterfield, we were buzzing about the result against them, but then after that we didn’t win for a long time, so we need to make sure we don’t go too over the top and keep this form going.

“With New Year’s coming up, a lot of teams are going to want to enjoy themselves, but we’ve got to stay responsible and remain professional. We’ll aim to build on what we achieved [at Cheltenham] and take that into the rest of the season.”

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Yates: We Were Outfought
Read more at http://www.ctfc.com/news/article/yates-post-mansfield-h-1260849.aspx?#XKXpO0HXUHyyg905.99

They came and did a job on us and stopped us playing." - Mark Yates

Mark Yates believes Mansfield came with a gameplan which worked perfectly.

Robins chief Mark Yates speaking to the media following this afternoon's 2-1 loss:

"For the first time in a couple of months we have not been good enough and it's disappointing. I'm not going over the top but we have been able to look each other in the eyes every week at 5pm since Tamworth and I don't think enough were good today. They came and did a job on us and stopped us playing but we didn't help ourselves. We had plenty of chances in the first half but we have gifted them the second goal and it was a bad time to concede. We came back out looking to give it a real go and that never really materialised. We had a late goal and a few half chances but we probably got what we deserved today.

"I haven't seen it (second goal) yet but from where I was Connor (Goldson) looked like he was facing his own goal and whether he headed it in or not - he was in the wrong position. That was a blow of course but we haven't got into a pattern, tempo or anything today. You have to give them (Mansfield) credit but i think from the first minute we knew what it was going to be like. It was a frustrating afternoon.

"I thought they did everything a little better than us. Not in terms of passing because I don't think they did but they played their game and they have gone with a certain way of playing and it has beaten us. credit to them for that but we got outfought, outbattled and that doesn't happen very often. The lesson is that we have to compete and we warned about complacent but I don't think that was the case today because we were just outbattled.

"It's disappointing but we have to go again now. We've been in decent form and one defeat in 11 won't deter us from what we're trying to do. There probably will be changes Wednesday but we'll see how everyone comes through today. We'll have a look at them tomorrow and Tuesday. We have to make sure we get some fresh legs on the pitch if required. We have a squad and if I have to mix them up a little bit then that is what I'll do."

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Latest | December 2013