Second Mansfield Town goal against Chesterfield was a 'killer', Paul Cook says
Paul Cook said Mansfield Town’s second goal in their derby day win against Chesterfield was a ‘killer.’
The Stags scored after two minutes through Rhys Oates but were on the back foot for the rest of the half, with goalkeeper Liam Roberts making four brilliant saves. Will Evans doubled the lead on the hour when he cut-out a pass from Chey Dunkley before finishing beyond Zach Hemming. That goal knocked the stuffing out of the Spireites and they failed to recover, crashing out of the Carabao Cup in the first round yet again.
Cook said: “Performances don’t really count in derby matches, results do. We are disappointed to lose the game, it is a big local derby. It is big bragging rights and Mansfield have won the game. You have to take your hat off to them and say well done and we will have to lick our wounds. A little bit of credit for our players for the performance but we are really disappointed for our supporters for the result. If we could have got a goal late on in front of the Kop it would given them something to shout about but unfortunately we couldn’t.
“Probably the most disappointing thing on the evening for us was conceding the second goal. We weren’t under pressure in the game. It was could we equalise? Could we open them up? Could we get that chance? And the second goal has probably taken the life out of players a bit and our supporters and it has been an achilles heel for a period. We have got to make sure going forward that we keep that backdoor shut. Irrespective of how well we played in the first-half, which we clearly did at times, we clearly had big chances that we must convert, but the reality is we lost the game and we congratulate Mansfield and we move on.”
Cook continued: “I think our supporters have enjoyed our first-half performance - I thought we were excellent. But the second goal is a killer. Everyone makes mistakes. We can’t give the opposition a leg up and we certainly did that. We have got to make sure we stay in games better and going forward we do feel we have a calibre of player that can score goals.”
It was the first derby in seven years and tt was an electric atmosphere with 9,500 in attendance but it was the travelling Stags who went home happy.
Cook added: “We have a great atmosphere here. The sad thing is, the last two big games here, the Walsall one and this one, it is the same scoreline, although probably different performances. The lads are working ever so hard, the staff are everyday, tonight we got no reward.”
Another disappointment was Matt Dibley-Dias going off in the first-half on his first start after suffering ‘a bang on his ankle.’
Cook explained: “He was feeling his ankle starting to swell so we did not want to take any chances. I thought he was playing extremely well.”
Chesterfield appealed strongly for a penalty in the second half but referee Adam Herczeg was unmoved, a decision Cook felt was incorrect.
Cook added: “I felt that on the balance of the game I didn’t feel he was going to give us that decision based on the decisions he made previously. We have looked back at the footage, and when he does, he will probably get a different answer but there you go.”