Bishop frustration that near-perfect Mansfield Town display fails to produce win

Man of the match on the night, Bishop was at least delighted to see Stags chalk up another clean sheet and create so many chances against the resilient Latics.

“Frustration is the over-riding emotion – I am almost lost for words,” said Bishop.

READ THE FULL MATCH REPORTREAD BOSS FLITCROFT’S THOUGHTS ON THE GAME“The lads have almost put on the perfect performance – it was probably better than Saturday and maybe our best of the season. But we haven’t got the three points.

“We have to go home, get the frustration out of our system, and come back in realising we can take a lot of positives out of that.

“That sticking the final knife in – the ruthless part – we’ve go to work on that on the training ground and take it to Bury on Saturday.”

However, he admitted there were many positives from last night, not least the second clean sheet in four days.

“It’s two clean sheets in two games and the back lads have been fantastic,” he said.

“For me it’s brilliant playing in front of them, they are so commanding.

“I am glad they are getting the clean sheets as they are certainly putting the work in and deserve it.”

He also said putting the ball in the net was not the sole responsibility of the front two.

“It’s down to all of us, myself included,” said Bishop. “We don’t just look to the top two. We have all got to take that responsibility.

“We will work on it on the training ground. That’s the only way to improve – hard work.

“We have created really good chances in just about every game we’ve played. If we weren’t creating chances it would be more worrying.”