Deflated Mansfield manager Nigel Clough says his side must start to defend better after their 4-1 defeat at Lincoln.
Two goalkeeping blunders and some poor defending played a key part in their defeat, with keeper Christy Pym at fault for City’s first two goals.
The Stags keeper was was beaten by Adam Jackson coming for a cross after 29 minutes and Lincoln doubled their lead when Pym made a mess of Sean Roughan’s inswinging free-kick in first-half stoppage-time.
“We came here with a lot of hope after an unbeaten start to the season,” said Clough.
“Everyone is despondent, everyone can do better, certainly at defending, We have to defend better.
“The free-kick right on the stroke of half-time is an absolute killer.
“We talked all week about the importance of set-pieces and long throws. We gave a soft free-kick away and Christy Pym failed to deal with it.
“He made two errors for the first two goals, they are probably the first two errors since he came in.
“We will never know what would have happened if we had got in 1-0 down at half-time.
“There was a lack of thought and a lack of intelligence today. We looked vulnerable every time the ball came into our box.
“Lincoln are an established League One side and they had the quality. They have a little bit more know-how at this level and they exposed us today, but we contributed too much to the defeat today..”
Lincoln added a third three minutes into the second half when an unmarked Jackson headed home his second of the afternoon.
The rampant Imps scored a fourth when Ben House tapped home a rebound after 51 minutes.
Deji Oshilaja pulled a consolation goal back with a close range finish after a corner on 69 minutes.
Head coach Michael Skubala felt his side got their rewards for a good team performance.
“We did really well today,” he said. “The plan was to try and catch them in transition and use our intensity in the right moments.
“I really liked the look of us today, we blew them away in the second half of the first half.
“All in all it is just a really good team performance. Mansfield are a really good team, they have experienced coaches and got a result at Barnsley.
“We knew balls would come into the box and we had to deal with that. They are big and physical and get runners off the back of us.
“We knew we had to hurt them in transition because of the way they play. We looked a real threat today.
“Set-pieces are a big part of what we do and we work really hard on them. Our attacking set-pieces were good today, they are a big part of this league.
“We blew them away with our intensity. We have started fast in every game and an early goal probably killed the game for them.”
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