Awford rues first-half display

Andy Awford admitted Portsmouth's chances of victory in their 1-1 draw with Mansfield were scuppered by a poor first half display.

The visitors looked to be heading for only their second away win of the season when Simon Heslop put them in front 57 seconds after half time, but Paul Robinson equalised for Pompey with 20 minutes to go. The south coast side have now drawn their last four league games in a row and Awford said: "The first half was disappointing, dull and our players lacked a spark. "At home we have to force the issue a bit more than we did in the opening 45 minutes. "The positive is we did not lose and the players showed great character to come from behind but we must do better in the first half. "We changed the formation from 3-5-2 to a diamond in midfield, changed a couple of players and it gave us a point." Mansfield could have been in front at half time, with former Wigan striker Rakish Bingham their standout player. Bingham called Pompey goalkeeper Paul Jones into action early on, rounding off a mazy right-wing run by shooting into the ex-Crawley man's gloves. Moments later Fergus Bell dinked a chipped shot over Jones' crossbar before Bingham put a diving header into the keeper's arms. Stags assistant manager Micky Moore was pleased to return to Nottinghamshire with a share of the spoils. Moore said: "If you had offered us a point before the game we would have taken it. "Portsmouth are a good side and Andy Awford has got them playing good football and this is a difficult place to come. "We had a game plan in place up to half time and a separate one for the second half. "We caught them cold early in the second half; got the goal and had a couple of other opportunities. After they equalised we had to defend well."