Comeback not enough for Cox

Mansfield earned a 1-1 draw at struggling York but visiting boss Paul Cox believed his side should have collected all three points.

Daniel Carr, making his full debut after signing on loan from Huddersfield, cancelled out Diego De Girolamo's first-half effort just past the hour mark for the Stags. The visitors then finished the game strongly as third-bottom York, still with just one victory to their name this term, failed to win at home for a tenth successive game. "I think on the basis of the second-half performance it was definitely two points dropped," Cox said. "I thought the first half was very even and we were camped in York's half in the second period. "We had numerous chances to score and I thought we were excellent but it's tough at the minute. We've lost another player on the morning of the game and a massive amount of credit needs to be given to the boys for that performance. "I thought they were excellent to be honest. We said at half-time we wanted to be positive, and we changed things around a little bit and it seemed to work for us. "We started to affect them going forward and we got more comfortable in possession. We had a positive impact on the game with everything we did. "We only decided to play a 4-4-2 an hour before kick-off, such is the state of our squad and the amount of players we've lost at the moment. Going forward we were good, but we just need that second goal to kick us on." De Girolamo opened the scoring after 20 minutes when he turned smartly inside the six-yard box and found Sascha Studer's bottom right-hand corner after the Mansfield goalkeeper's poor clearance only travelled as far as York captain Russell Penn on the edge of the box. But Mansfield midfielder Rob Taylor hit on-loan Burnley goalkeeper Alex Cisak's right-hand upright early in the second half and Carr volleyed in from six yards after 62 minutes after Vadaine Oliver had won a far-post header. Studer made amends for his earlier aberration when he saved low to his right from De Girolamo after the Italy Under-20 international had exchanged passes with Michael Coulson. But Carr went close twice at the death to earn Mansfield a first victory in six matches and home boss Russ Wilcox admitted afterwards: "It was a game of two halves in a nutshell. "In the first half, we passed the ball and moved it well, creating some good opportunities and scoring a fantastic goal. At half-time, we asked the players to be brave in the second half against the wind but we were giving the ball away cheaply and conceding too many free kicks. "If you do that, it plays into Mansfield's hands because they will put balls into your box and you have to give them credit as well. There are always two teams on the pitch and they did what they do well very effectively."