Carlisle scorefred sponsored by God save The King.

[MTFCMusings]

Not at it tonight. To have played the same forward line for most of the match when it clearly wasn’t working was a bit strange, especially with other options available. Positive is the clean sheet but in all honesty that was down to poor finishing by Carlisle

[arsene wengers coat]

Well that were crap in the end. We huffed and puffed but rarely did we trouble them. No sustained pressure. Pretty slow and ponderous up front. Set piece deliveries we're poor overall. Carlisle deserve some credit for that game though. They nullified us.

Oh well. Bore draw. We move on.

[PostmanPat]

We had nothing whatsoever on the bench and only 6 subs out of 7. Keep your squad small Nigel, we don’t need any signings

[Johnny H]

Why only one substitution ?
Why not try and change things up ?

Is that cos NC thinks the bench is weak ?

Akins for Gale or Gordon on and Bowery up top for Akins was a change that should have been made after 70 mins at least......
Hartigan slows the play too.......not convinced so far !

Clean sheet is a bonus, but thats mainly cos Dennis is still poor and missed sitters

[adamstag]

Tonight is the first of many games where we will be stung by not getting a forward in, when we’ve had all summer to do so.

[london amber stag]

Wasn’t expecting Carlisle to cramp our style so effectively. We move on and hope we can get 3 points at Gillingham. I hope Swan is back as our forward line looks threadbare.

[stagsfan6493]

Sort of game where not signing that extra striker has cost us.

[broomo]

Awful scrappy game, especially second half. I thought the ref contributed to the mess by letting too much go then missing clear fouls.

As good as the midfield was at Donny it was poor tonight. I thought Maris had a shocker with and without the ball.

Robbed by the linesman getting it wrong but they had 3 clear chances 2 of which were awful misses.

A point is a point but disappointed to lose a bit of ground on those above us.

[gazza1988]

Not at it tonight. To have played the same forward line for most of the match when it clearly wasn’t working was a bit strange, especially with other options available. Positive is the clean sheet but in all honesty that was down to poor finishing by Carlisle

I can see Clough mentioning the offside goal that wasn't offside. Perhaps mention little to no attacking options from the bench. Ignoring the 2 strikers playing in defence. Could've brought Gordon and/or O’Toole on and moved one or both of the strikers up front.

How many forward options do we need? Akins, Bowery and Hawkins all started. Lapslie too. Gale on the bench. There's 5 options.

Our midfield wasn't on their game today and it showed. They say the midfield is the engine room. We stalled.

[adamstag]

Awful scrappy game, especially second half. I thought the ref contributed to the mess by letting too much go then missing clear fouls.

As good as the midfield was at Donny it was poor tonight. I thought Maris had a shocker with and without the ball.

Robbed by the linesman getting it wrong but they had 3 clear chances 2 of which were awful misses.

A point is a point but disappointed to lose a bit of ground on those above us.

it was poor tactics with no recognised forwards

We all know that’s the black and white of it

We move on

[NEStag]

Not on it tonight.

A scrappy game and we struggled to get any rhythm.

We could argue we had a good goal disallowed but overall they had the best of the chances and so a draw seems fair.

Hopefully we bounce back for Gillingham.

[BH_Stag]

Disappointing evening.

We never got going and gained any real momentum then started to look tired and the lack of options on the bench in forward areas didn’t help. Games like that are precisely the reason why we needed to get another forward in.

Also, special mention to the ref, who managed to put in one of the most irritating performances I’ve seen in a long time without making any major decisions. Desperate to be the centre of attention and took an age to do everything.

Thought Carlisle were decent and clearly had the better chances. They’ll be a bit disappointed to not leave with 3 points.

Hartigan my man of the match in a stags shirt.

[Sandy Pate Best Stag]

We were lucky to get nil tonight.

Slow and ponderous and too much hoof ball. Passing and close control were poor and we just never got going. For some reason most of the team looked nervous and lacked confidence.

Carlisle closed us down well and we made them look competent despite them making nearly as many mistakes as us. Dennis should give his wages back and it must have been very difficult to clear the bar from six yards with a ball which was rolling perfectly along the floor. He didn’t even have the excuse that the ball was bobbling.

We need to be much better if we are going to achieve anything but hopefully it was just a blip.

We go again.

[adamstag]

imagine if we’d have got a CB in so the only forward on the pitch wasn’t in defence who could have scored being a forward where he lived instead of being a defender

who’d have thought

[MTFCMusings]

imagine if we’d have got a CB in so the only forward on the pitch wasn’t in defence who could have scored being a forward where he lived instead of being a defender

who’d have thought

More by luck than judgement as I said earlier, but that’s three Hawkins games at centre back and no goals conceded from open play. The whole system is designed around him, he ain’t moving it would seem.

[wink68]

imagine if we’d have got a CB in so the only forward on the pitch wasn’t in defence who could have scored being a forward where he lived instead of being a defender

who’d have thought

If we had really wanted it we could have found a way of getting Hawkins up top for the last 10 minutes and trying plan B.

[Ralphy]

Martin just confirmed they've watched the ifollow feed and the analyst feed and lapslie was onside and his goal should have stood. It was tight but definitely onside.

We need VAR

Was in line with this in R block, defo onside

[Brough]

Wait until January! When Clough says it’s another difficult window to bring in new faces. It will be 10 years in league 2

[wink68]

imagine if we’d have got a CB in so the only forward on the pitch wasn’t in defence who could have scored being a forward where he lived instead of being a defender

who’d have thought

If we had really wanted it we could have found a way of getting Hawkins up top for the last 10 minutes and trying plan B.

And why no Gordon. The only player we have left with a bit of pace. I know he can't defend but Bowery did nothing going forward all night. At least have a go. Surprised Wallace didn't come on to sure up the 1 point we had.

[MTFCMusings]

Can we get that Friday night game moved back to a Saturday?

[Ralphy]

Carlisle did a number on us tonight, swamped the midfield and made it scrappy with lots of niggly fouls, they came for a point and time wasted from early on to get it. Never got going although I thought Maris and Hartigan played well the system relies on Lapslie and Clarke getting past Akins and into the box and it didn’t really happen tonight. Good example of a system that works well away from home (wouldn’t surprise me if we beat Gillingham with it) as there is more room for the runners from midfield but need a change at home when we have to take the initiative.

[Sneag]

We were crap tonight. The only positive is we got 1 more point than we deserved.

The most interest part of the evening was moon rise over Mansfield. Most tranquil.

[yorkshire stag]

scrappy dull game, the crowd & players never got going, Hewitt defiantly MOTM didn’t put a foot wrong all game.
Clough really doesn’t fancy KG, JB9 was offering nothing out wide, i’d have given KG 20 mins, to not even fill our bench is a real
concern.

[Rob]

scrappy dull game, the crowd & players never got going, Hewitt defiantly MOTM didn’t put a foot wrong all game.
Clough really doesn’t fancy KG, JB9 was offering nothing out wide, i’d have given KG 20 mins, to not even fill our bench is a real
concern.

The fact we couldn't fill the bench already speaks volumes of Cloughs transfer policy this summer. We have no strikers (except Gale who didn't get a minute), Akins tries hard but isn't an out and out striker - in fact the only one we had was playing CB again because, guess what, we don't have enough CB's either. Hewitt was terrific, Pym didn't put a foot wrong, the rest were poor but were hindered by poor tactics and a lack of a goal threat. In a game where we were so poor to only make one change was wrong. It was a poor performance from team and manager.

[Sharp]

Wait until January! When Clough says it’s another difficult window to bring in new faces. It will be 10 years in league 2

Better than 10 in the conference. Since we’ve spent (in my life supporting Stags) more time in non league than in Division 1 why is that a surprise? History prove we are a division 2 club so why not enjoy it and anything better enjoy it even more.