PLYMOUTH Argyle head coach Tom Cleverley said his side “let Mansfield off the hook” after being held to a 1-1 draw at Home Park on Tuesday night.

Argyle dominated large spells of the game, particularly during an impressive first half, but failed to make their superiority count and were made to pay when Mansfield Town equalised shortly before the break.

The Greens took a deserved lead through Bim Pepple and had further chances shortly after as Pepple and Caleb Watts both brought the best out of goalkeeper Liam Roberts. However, that lack of clinical finishing proved costly when Ryan Sweeney scrambled home a Mansfield equaliser just before half-time.

Argyle were unable to recapture the same tempo after the interval, with the second half proving more stop-start as Nigel Clough’s visitors grew more into the contest. The draw followed back-to-back 1-0 victories against Peterborough United and Luton Town, games in which Argyle also dominated but crucially kept clean sheets to secure all three points.

Speaking afterwards, Cleverley, who watched from the stands while serving a suspension, admitted the result felt like an opportunity missed.

“We need to be more clinical,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll put in many more dominant performances than that first half. To go in at 1-1, we’ve let them off the hook.

“The overriding feeling is two points dropped, which shows how far we’ve come in the last 10 or 12 weeks. A few weeks ago we’d probably have been delighted with a point, but now we’re disappointed.”

Cleverley praised Argyle’s defensive structure and overall progress but highlighted finishing as the key area for improvement.

“You've got to replicate that [first-half] performance again because if we do, we give ourselves the best chance of winning the game. I didn't feel like we quite hit the heights of the first half. Second half, it was a bit more bitty.

“I didn't think we kept the rhythm in the game well enough, or as much as we did first half. We didn't create as much, but we've certainly created in the last three games enough to give me a lot of hope moving forward.

“We were probably more dominant in the last three league games than we were against Burton, where it was 3-0. We're doing a lot of good things. I didn't think [Mansfield] did anywhere near enough to score a goal today. Structurally, all the basics are there from a defensive perspective, there's a lot of sustainable things in these performances that I'm seeing.

“The problem you'd most likely like to have as a coach is that last action, the one that puts the ball in the net.”