Murray reads riot act to his Yellows
ADAM Murray said he needed to remind his Mansfield Town players that they weren’t on the beach yet as they hit back for a point at Cheltenham Town.
Substitute Billy Kee’s 68th-minute goal cancelled out Wes Burns’ opener for the Stags, which kept them away from the danger zone and left Cheltenham deep in trouble.
“It was a scrappy game and not pretty at all,” Murray said.“In the first 45 minutes we went through the motions and we were not at the standards the group have set.
“We are going to have games like this through the season and it’s a great point, showing real desire to get back and score the goal.
“We didn’t defend as well as we have done. I have experienced a lot of things and when we come to games like this, when the sun is out, we drove through the middle and saw cars with the roofs down and people may think we’re nearly at the end of the season.
“That can’t happen and there were a few with pina coladas, a few had sunscreen on and we’re better than that.
“We started the second half badly so the team talk obviously didn’t work. But it’s a big point for us.”
Cheltenham boss Russell Milton was pleased to see his team climb out of the bottom two, but admitted it was two points dropped.
“There are some disap- pointed faces in there because we were ahead and doing okay,” Milton said.“We were then pegged back for ten or 15 minutes and then in the last ten or 15 I thought we were great, with a real injection from the subs.
“It’s probably two points lost because we were ahead, but we have moved out of the bottom two, so it’s made it brighter day for us.
“We were concentrating on their long throws and set plays and then we scored from one so I was pleased we got ourselves in front straight after half-time.
“We lost momentum a bit, but came back in at the end and the chances fell to the man you want them too, in Shaun Harrad, who put a great shift in for half an hour. I am sure he’ll take his chances in the coming matches.”
The first half was largely uneventful, but Mansfield hit the bar through Junior Brown’s header in the 28th minute, with Troy Brown blocking Simon Heslop’s follow-up attempt.
Cheltenham opened the scoring in the 47th minute when Craig Braham-Barrett’s long throw was flicked on by Mathieu Manset for Burns to stroke in.
Mansfield levelled in the 68th minute when Reggie Lambe set up Kee, who finished emphatically to secure an important share of the spoils.