New assistant manager Paul Raynor says the Stags’ squad need to continue to work hard on their fitness with the management team keen to implement a high-intensity game plan in Sky Bet League Two.
Stags secured passage to the third round of the Checkatrade Trophy on Tuesday evening with a dramatic 3-2 victory over Carlisle United thanks to forward Danny Rose’s late wonder-strike.
And after seeing Rose climb off the bench to score the incredible winner against the Cumbrians on Tuesday night, Raynor says he, and the rest of the squad, need to continue working hard on their fitness in order to perform the high-intensity game plan which the management team are trying to put in place.
“We had a behind-closed-doors game against Sheffield United last week and he (Danny Rose) had a little bit of cramp towards the end of the game there and that probably tells you that he probably needs to work a little bit more on his fitness, but that goes for everybody in the squad.
“We want to play a pressing game, a high pressure game, and to do that you need to be incredibly fit and we’ve been working on that in the last couple of weeks and people are seeing the benefits of that now.”
Raynor revealed that manager Steve Evans is beginning to put a comprehensive scouting network in place as we approach the January transfer window and there is now a chief scout, whose identity is to be revealed early next week, who is actively watching players across the country.
“We’ve just added somebody to the scouting network we’ve got, which is good. It means we’re moving forward in that direction as well so we’re covering all the games and we’re getting all the info as well.
“We’re out there actively looking, our scouting network is out there looking at players, identifying targets [but] let’s hope we don’t need too many. Let’s hope these boys that are here already step up to the fore and stop us having to spend so much of the chairman’s money!
“We’re trying to change the infrastructure and make things better and more professional. That’s just a part of what we’ve been used to at other clubs and we were doing it pretty much off a video before and the analysis guy was doing all the scouting for us via video.
“We’ve got somebody out there actively looking now who’s got a lot of contacts around the country and that can only help us.”
The assistant boss says the Stags have had received a welcome injury boost ahead of this Saturday’s game against Colchester United, with a number of players returning to training.
“Mitch Rose has trained this morning and Darius Henderson’s trained this morning. It’s the first full session they’ve had though so we’ll have a look and see how they are in the morning ready for the weekend but with any injury, we need to make sure there’s no reaction to that. Paddy Hoban’s done a little bit this morning as well with us so he’s progressing well.”
Supporters can view Paul Raynor’s news conference, in full, on Stags PlayerHD.
