Mansfield Town

Defender happy to be a regular and looking forward to Saturday's match at Dagenham & Redbridge.

Defender Ritchie Sutton admits he's got the confidence to push on this season, following a solid year in Sky Bet League Two in 2013/14.

The 28-year-old was an almost ever-present for us last term, racking up 35 appearances in all competitions, and believes that has stood him in good stead for the current campaign.

He said: “It was good to get that good season under my belt last year. I played a lot of games and it was good that it was back in the league, so that’s given me the confidence to push on and hopefully achieve more this year.”

“Just because I’m a defender, it doesn’t mean that it’s not a confidence thing. With forwards and wingers you say ‘it’s a confidence thing’, but if you’re confident as a defender then that’s when you keep your clean-sheets and start to feel good about yourself."

Sutton also believes that a good pre-season where the games came thick and fast, has given our team a good platform to build from.

He continued: “I played a lot of games in pre-season and it feels like I've done a mini-league before it’s even started, so it’s nice to get them games early doors, but now the season is starting to pan out it’s nice to be able to recover properly and do my best for each game.”

With our team looking to continue their winning run at Dagenham & Redbridge on Saturday, Sutton is expecting another tough game: “[We’re expecting] a solid unit. It was 0-0 last time, they’re hard to break down, so it’s going to be a tight game.

“We’ve travelled on the day to these occasions before so we'll have no excuses. I think we’ll be fine.”

The ex-Port Vale man is pleased with how we have defended so far this season, something which was was epitomised in Tuesday’s 1-0 win over Newport County: “I think we looked solid all pre-season, obviously we’ve taken that in to the league now as well and it was good to get that first league clean-sheet, both on a personal note and as a team. If we keep clean-sheets then we’re going to win more games than not.”

“I think the way we play we’re a solid unit. I think a lot of games will be settled by one goal. Obviously [we were] on the other side of that against Northampton Town and Sheffield United but I think we played well especially in the Sheffield United game."