Mansfield Town manager Adam Murray believes Saturday’s local derby against Notts County is an opportunity to put the frustrations of their previous home games behind them.
Saturday’s match, which kicks off at 12.15pm at One Call Stadium, will see Stags, who are unbeaten in their last three matches in all competitions, face an in-form County side who have won their last three League games.
And the boss is placing his, and his squad’s, entire focus on their own camp going in to the game as they look to put in another good performance against the Magpies after being frustrated in their recent home games.
“We want to make the game about us. It’s a game where we come in to it in good form, performance levels are very high and it’s one of them that we want to right the frustrations of the previous home games where every man and his dog in the ground knew we should’ve won the games,” said the Stags’ chief.
“The prime example is Grimsby; [they had] one shot on target, a penalty and one goal and we end up losing the game after numerous opportunities and we all felt the frustration after that game and the previous game at home, so it’s a game that we want to put sole focus on ourselves and try and right some of those frustrations.”
The manager has highlighted the importance of everyone inside One Call Stadium on Saturday – the players, staff and fans – working together towards a positive result for the club.
“The home form, not just this season, but in lots of years at Mansfield, hasn’t been very good. The seasons that it has been good, they’ve ended up being successful. Be that play-offs, promotion, whatever it is, the big common denominator in that is players and fans [standing] side-by-side.
“So if someone makes a bad pass after three minutes, or someone makes a bad decision or I pick a team that somebody doesn’t agree with, for 95 minutes, we have to stay as one.
“Whether you agree with things or you don’t agree with things, you don’t like some players, you don’t like the manager, you don’t like the staff, you don’t like the way we’re playing, for 95 minutes the environment is key and what we can’t do is, whether it’s our local rivals or anybody that comes in to this house, give one scent of blood.”
After strikers Pat Hoban and Danny Rose have showed signs of a fruitful partnership over the last two League games, Darius Henderson put in a strong performance against Port Vale in midweek and Matt Green scored the winner in Staffordshire, Murray admitted that he has some tough decisions to make in regards to team selection on Saturday.
“That’s probably my trickiest thing for Saturday to be honest with you because the performances the lads have put in over the last few games, and I even include the losses in that because the performances have been good, it’s a tough one.
“I felt the boys who played on Tuesday gave us something different, but the boys that played on Saturday gave us something different to that. So a few decisions to make but we’ll base it on the game and the occasion.”
Supporters will be able to view Adam Murray’s pre-Notts County news conference on Stags PlayerHD later today.
