TOWN COLLAPSE ANNOYS AUSTIN
NORTHAMPTON Town manager Dean Austin was furious at his side’s tame second-half capitulation in this drubbing at Mansfield Town.
The Stags only led 1-0 at the end of a tight first half thanks to debut-making loanee Timi Elsnik’s brilliant pitch-length burst and low finish from a breakaway from a Northbe ampton corner after just five minutes.
But it was one-way traffic after the break, and only some good saves from David Cornell kept the scoreline down.
“I feel emotional and I feel let down,” said Austin.
“I am angry and I can only apologise to the our faithful for what we served up today.
“It started off quite bright for five minutes, then we gave away a stupid goal from our own set piece and then you are chasing the game.
“The concern is we were playing well in the early part of the season and creating chances without scoring. Now we are not even playing well or creating chances.
“I won’t stand for that and the boys know there will be big changes on Tuesday.
“At the moment, we are just far too easy to play against. I will stick up for them all day long when they are having a go, but I can’t defend that today.”
Danny Rose netted twice and assisted on the other two to win man-of-the-match award.
His header sent Elsnik on his way for the opener and then the persistent Rose won two 50-50 challenges out wide after 57 minutes, before beating Cornell to the deflected ball and steering into an empty net from a tight angle.
After 82 minutes he set up CJ Hamilton to beat Cornell low at his near post and, after 87 minutes, he turned Hamilton’s cross home from 10 yards.
“That was fantastic,” beamed Mansfield assistant manager Ben Futcher.
“The performances have been there, but we’ve just not finished teams off at times. So to play Northampton who, on paper, are a very strong side, and get four goals and as dominant as that – it could have been more – it’s been a great day.
“All the lads have been aware of us not finishing teams off and we’ve worked on it in training.
“We have kept believing in what we do and kept creating chances – today we’ve taken them.”
On Elsnik’s goal, he said: “It was a good finish. Timi has that in him – he is a very talented young player who we’ve worked with before. He is only going to get fitter and stronger the more he plays and he is going to be a good asset to us.” On Rose, he added: “We were delighted with Danny today. He was excellent throughout the game and to get the goals was just desserts.”