Ten-man Stags give Flitcroft a nice return
IT was a happy return to his old stomping ground for Mansfield boss David Flitcroft after he saw his 10 men dig in for a hard-earned point.
The Stags had to overcome the 43rdminute dismissal of Will Atkinson and produced a resolute second-half defensive performance to keep Swindon at bay.
“My boys earned that point,” said former Robins boss Flitcroft.
“With 11 versus 11 they did not create one chance.
“I am delighted we are still unbeaten away from home.
“I am also absolutely delighted with the way they shut the pitch down. I never felt uncomfortable at all.”
Atkinson was on the end of a tough challenge from Marc Richards early on, and took his frustrations out first on Matt Taylor and later Keshi Anderson, and picked up two yellow cards as a result, with the second coming in the 43rd minute.
Prior to the red, CJ Hamilton shot over and Danny Rose had a header well saved by Lawrence Vigouroux, while Elijah Adebayo and Anderson were both denied at the other end.
Swindon were the more threatening in the second half, as the extra man pushed for the winner, with sub Kaiyne Woolery warming the gloves of Bobby Olejnik.
On-loan Fulham forward Adebayo had the best chance, however he could only divert a shot from close range wide of the post following a Jermaine McGlashan cross.
With eight minutes left, Taylor hit a post with a curled freekick.
Swindon manager Phil Brown cut a frustrated figure aterwards. He had also held crisis talks with his players in the lead-up to the game after admitting they were ‘behind schedule’ with their points return so far.
He said: “When a side goes down to 10 men as early as that, you expect to win the game. But you’ve got no divine right to win just because it’s 10 v 11, as we’ve proved on many occasions.
“They were organised, they were well-drilled, and in the second half the showed what they were about, they were trying to nick the game, rightly so.
“But it’s one-way traffic for the last 10, 15 minutes and you just hope that something drops for you.”