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20/07/2008 - McEwan happy with Mansfield's showing at Hucknall

Billy McEwan declared himself satisfied with what he saw from Mansfield’s players in their first senior pre-season friendly at Hucknall.

The Stags beat their Notts neighbours 1-0 thanks to Michael Blackwood’s strike early in the second half.

McEwan was pleased the team finally got a game under their belts after a series of tough pre-season training sessions.

“It was a good work-out,” he said. “You can tell that they needed a 90-minute game, although most of the players only played 45 or 60 minutes.

“We have not done a lot of work on positioning and organisation so from that point of view, I can’t be too critical of anybody.

“II just have to get more of that into them and hopefully we can get onto a full-size pitch this week.

The Stags featured 10 trialists including former Notts County striker Jason Lee.

McEwan will look to trim down those numbers before the first Conference game at Ebbsfleet on August 9.

He said: “We want a squad of 20, but sometimes you can’t always have it.

"What you want and what you get can sometimes be two very different things."