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• Dave Challinor demands more despite Stockport winning run

  Stockport boss Dave Challinor remained reserved despite his side moving up to fourth and extending their winning streak to five games with a 2-0 success over struggling Forest Green.

  Isaac Olaofe nodded home the opener in the 15th minute before Antoni Sarcevic doubled their advantage in the second half.

  Second-bottom Forest Green, who have lost five straight games, had defender Marcel Lavinier sent off after he picked up two yellow cards.

  The County boss said: “I’m disappointed with the last half an hour after the sending-off because we made life more difficult for ourselves in terms of not looking after the football and not moving it forward in a manner that would’ve hurt them when we had the opportunity to.

  “It was great to get in front and it almost then became a game management job in terms of being in a leading position.

  “I just want us to be more crisp and more precise and technically better than we were.

  “But I spoke to them before the game and said that attitude-wise we need to be bang on. We’ve got ourselves in a winning position, scored two goals and not conceded, and before the game if you’d have offered me that I would have taken it.”

  Challinor was, however, happy with his side’s ruthlessness in front of goal in recent matches.

  “We’ve been really clinical in terms of the opportunities that we’ve taken,” he added. “In the last six games now we’ve scored two or more goals which is great and gives you a real chance of winning games, which has been the case in the last five.”

  Rovers manager David Horseman was frustrated with how his side switched off to give the hosts two goals.

  He said: “When you give two goals away – you’re not marking at the far post and then a sloppy outside-of-the-foot pass leads to it ending up in the goal – against the good teams you give yourselves no real chance.

  “The first one is really poor. The second is really irritating because we have total control. It ricochets to him. It’s not been loads of individually brilliant bits of play and it ends up in the back of the net.

  “I thought we looked threatening at times but we don’t take our chances and we gave two poor goals away. What chance have you got when that’s the case?

  “If you keep giving goals away like we do at one end, and we miss big opportunities to play right through them after they kick it into the middle of the pitch, if you don’t get those two bits right you’ve got no chance against the good teams.”

• Mansfield boss Nigel Clough proud of his players after Wrexham point

  Mansfield boss Nigel Clough was left proud but frustrated after his in-form side were held 0-0 at home by promotion rivals Wrexham.

  Now the only unbeaten side in the country, the Stags battered the visitors in the first half and twice hit the woodwork amid a string of chances, but Wrexham weathered the storm and had chances to win it in an improved second half.

  “Playing one of the best sides in the league I thought we were absolutely magnificent from start to finish,” said Clough.

  “I hope the fans enjoyed it even though it was a 0-0.

  “We just didn’t get a break – I think we hit both posts.

  “Especially first half, with the chances we created, we just needed one of them to go in. It wasn’t for the lack of trying. We couldn’t have done any more to win it.

  “Sometimes we can’t control the result. We can only control the performance and the way we want to play.

  “Then it’s a bit in the lap of the gods if you get a break or not or someone is good enough on the day to get you a finish. I thought one goal would have been enough tonight.”

  Wrexham were penned back for almost the whole of the first half and Davis Keillor-Dunn hit a post while Ollie Clarke also saw goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo turn his low finish onto the woodwork.

  Keillor-Dunn sent a six-yard header at the keeper, while Aaron Lewis shot over from 12 yards.

  After the break, Ollie Palmer, Aaron Hayden and James McClean all went close to a winner for the visitors, while James Gale and Keillor-Dunn almost won it for Mansfield.

  Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson said: “Mansfield are obviously a good side and we had to stand strong in that first half.

  “Our quality let us down on the ball, we weren’t quite slick enough in possession. There are reasons for that or credit to the opposition, who were really right on top of the game.

  “When you’re not at your best you then have to stand strong and our keeper made some great saves and we got some great blocks in.

  “We defended set plays as well to get us in 0-0 at half-time with a great chance to go on and win the game. We had to stay in the game.

  “Second half I thought we showed a lot more quality in our play while still showing the steeliness we needed in our defending.

  “In the second half we had the best chances to win the game. We restricted them to shots from distance really.

  “Mansfield have been tipped for promotion for the last few years and that was a really important point for us tonight.”

• Middlesbrough boss Michael Carrick knows Emmanuel Latte Lath ‘has goals in him’

  Middlesbrough boss Michael Carrick has backed summer signing Emmanuel Latte Lath to continue finding the net after scoring in the 2-0 win over Cardiff.

  Since signing from Atalanta in the summer for a fee believed to be around £4million, the Ivorian has been in and out of the side and this was only his second Championship goal.

  But the substitute’s cool finish with six minutes remaining put the finishing touches to Boro’s third league win in a row to climb up to 16th, leaving them five points shy of a play-off place.

  And Carrick, who watched Latte Lath find the net in the Carabao Cup win at Bradford a week ago, said: “Emmanuel, that’s two in two for him and we know he has goals in him.

  “Between him and Josh Coburn we have very different number nines. Josh did a lot of good things and then Emmanuel came on and had a big impact on the game.

  “I’m really pleased, overall there were a lot of good things in the game. We had to make changes for different reasons before the game and we improved as the game went on.

  “We managed the game really well second half, the boys came off the bench and made an impact.

  “We could sense the frustration in the stadium first half and that doesn’t really help the players, but they stuck to it, believed in what we were doing.

  “Cardiff were always going to make it difficult and they were on a good run, we knew it would be a tough game. The boys were calm enough and I felt the improvement during the game.”

  Cardiff boss Erol Bulut was angered by Isaiah Jones’ 56th-minute opener because he claimed the winger was standing in an offside position when Danish full-back Lukas Engel crossed to him.

  That arrived at a time when both teams struggled to create openings and the game could have gone either way.

  Once Latte Lath had slotted in the second there was no way back for Cardiff, whose four-match winning run in the league came to an end.

  Bulut, whose side slipped out of the top six with this defeat, said: “For both teams in the first half it was a tactical game.

  “The second half we showed tiredness from the travelling from the last games, and also today we had to change a few positions because of injuries. This is not an excuse.

  “But I can say tiredness was a little bit (apparent) second half. The first goal changed the game, and if you watch the first goal it was a clear offside.

  “After the first goal we had to push more to score. We couldn’t manage to score. In the first half we had that Karlan Grant chance, if that goes in it would have been much different.

  “We have to keep our feet on the ground regardless. This loss is not the end of the world. We will have a good rest and 100 per cent we have to be on the field again.”