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Cox hails excellent Mansfield

Image: Paul Cox: Proud of Mansfield display

Paul Cox hailed Mansfield's best home display of the season after Alex Fisher's 90th-minute header secured a deserved 1-0 win.

The Stags controlled long spells of the game and had the best chances but it seemed it was going to end up goalless until Ryan Tafazolli helped on Liam Marsden's long throw from the left and Fisher rose to head in his first home goal for the club from close range. "I thought we were excellent and we showed incredible bravery with the ball," smiled Cox. "We played some great stuff, and we probably overplayed it at times. "But I was over the moon with the performance and thought we fully deserved the win. We were the better side and it was out best home performance of the season. "We were excellent with and without the ball, though I was worried we might get done with a breakaway near the end as we got a bit gung-ho. "But we want to win as many times as we can in front of our own supporters. "You have got to remember some of these boys are going through the pain barrier with knocks and injuries. But they don't know when they are beaten. "I said at half time we didn't need to chase the game and ultimately we'd get a chance. It was late on when it came and realistically we should have wrapped things up by then. "It can be hard as the lads sometimes feel a bit of pressure at home. But we moved the ball well like we did in pre-season and the crowd got behind them and took away the anxiety at the end." Mansfield should have been ahead within 10 minutes when home debutant Rakish Bingham prodded wide of an open goal from six yards after Barry Roche had got down to parry a Matt Rhead blast. Lee Beevers also skimmed the Shrimps' bar with a 25 yard effort. Home goalkeeper Dimitar Evtimov had one save to make as he clawed away a dipping Aaron McGowan shot. After the break the visitors were completely outplayed, Fergus Bell and Rhead forcing saves from Roche and Adam Murray seeing his 64th minute finish headed off the line by Andrew Fleming. The Shrimps had only lost one League Two game all season and could have closed the gap at the top after leaders Burton were beaten. But Fisher, a summer capture from Italian club AC Monza, stole the headlines to push the Stags back into the top 10. Morecambe boss Jim Bentley said: "That's twice we've lost it in the last minute and it's disappointing. It is tough to take. "We made a decent enough start. And we defended really well. We had to stand up and be counted - and we did that. Someone told me they put 29 long throws into the box and we defended 28 of them. The one we never cost us the game. "There were plenty of positives. But I was disappointed that we gave away too many silly fouls against a side who play to their strengths and like to load the box. "We also got a bit involved and didn't pass the ball well, even though we knew beforehand what it would be like. "We have not had many chances but when we changed the formation in the last 20 minutes we did look a bit more like we could have pinched it ourselves."

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