Mansfield Town

Stags' boss Adam Murray now focussed on Dons' visit this Saturday.

Manager Adam Murray said he was ‘disappointed’ to lose to Notts County in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy first round, but his focus heads straight onto league matters on Saturday against AFC Wimbledon.

Craig Westcarr’s late penalty was a consolation goal as strikes from Izale McLeod, Mike Edwards and Jon Stead booked the Magpies’ place in the second round.

Murray, who had made six changes to his side last night, also experimented with a different formation in the match.

“I think it was a performance that at times, we looked like we had six or seven players who hadn’t played for six or seven weeks," said Murray, speaking after last night's match at Meadow Lane.

“We were a yard off it, you could tell we were short of match fitness but that was always going to be the case.

“Now the ‘Saturday-Tuesday’s’ are going to ease off, we need to get some behind-closed-doors games organised because when you’re asking the boys to go in and affect it, they need to be up to speed.

“Obviously the first few weeks of the season, playing Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday the team has been doing well so we haven’t had to make that many changes but then the boys that haven’t been in the team lack match fitness and you can’t beat match fitness.

“[In the] last twenty minutes, Adi [Yussuf] had cramp, Jammer [Jamie McGuire] was struggling to keep up and that’s the way it goes. We have to take that one on the chin and we go again on Saturday.”

The boss said he was ‘disappointed to lose a game of football’ but now his focus is directed quickly towards the league campaign.

“I'm disappointed to lose a game of football but my focus and the team’s focus moves on to Wimbledon.

“I’ve said all along that my focus and the team’s main priority is the league; we believe we can affect it and we’ve shown that we can affect it and we want to get in those play-offs now and that’s where we set our focus for the rest of the season.”

The Stags’ camp have already done their homework on their next Sky Bet League Two opponents, and the gaffer says his side is ready for their first home win of the season.

“We’ve obviously done our homework on them already and watched all of their games apart from tonight’s and we know their strengths and weaknesses.

“We’ve already laid down the marker in the dressing room just now, we want our first home league win on Saturday and we want to put three points on the board, so Saturday will be about us. We’ll play on the front foot, we’ll set our tempo and our style of play on them and we want to win.”

Murray’s final word was again for the fantastic away following from the Stags last night: “We’re disappointed for our fans because I thought they were superb again.. [They gave us] great backing even when we were losing at the end, they stayed and supported us and we’ll repay them this season.

“We owe them for last season; I owe them for putting them through what they went through last season.”