JOHN Coleman is demanding a positive start and goals when he takes his inconsistent side to buoyant Mansfield tonight.

The Reds suffered a 2-0 defeat at Portsmouth on Saturday that was mostly down to conceding from a corner inside two minutes at Fratton Park and a limp first half-hour performance.

Meanwhile, the Stags have been resurgent since Steve Evans took charge, winning six out of the their last eight games in a superb run stretching back to the start of the year.

That's moved them up to seventh in the table and they go into tonight's clash with Stanley on the back of a 4-0 hammering of Hartlepool.

"It's vital to get a good start at Mansfield," said Coleman.

"They are on the back of scoring four goals so will be absolutely cockahoop, so we have to learn from Saturday but put it behind us.

"We can't do anything about it now, what we can do is try to win more games and we've got a great opportunity to do that at Mansfield."

Coleman will have Scott Brown and Matty Pearson both available again after suspension and is delighted to have them back in the fold, although Terry Gornell will miss out.

The manager said: "They are two good lads, two very keen lads who will go through a brick wall for you.

"It's not so much Scotty's experience, I think you miss his enthusiasm.

"He's got that in abundance and you miss it when he's not there."

He added: "I think the game will come too soon for Terry. He damaged his ankle in training last week and possibly won't be ready until the weekend."

Stanley have scored the lowest number of goals in League Two, something Coleman admits is a 'massive concern', but he is looking for an improvement in all areas after described the Pompey defeat as 'unacceptable'.

"It's another game and we've got to get ourselves up for the game and compete the way I know we can do," he said.

"We didn't make too many chances on Saturday. I don't think their keeper made a save, we had a couple of scrambles and a couple of pot shots that were off target, so we want to improve on that straight away."

He added: "It's been up and down all season, but that first half hour at Portsmouth was unacceptable.

"If I was a travelling fan I would have been really really upset by what I saw.

"Then we woke up after half an hour and we gave as good as we got.

"If we'd have started the game like we finished the game there would have no problem in getting one point and possibly three.