Mansfield Town

Defender Ryan Tafazolli is confident that our team have plenty to look forward to in the near future as a frustrating season culminates with an away game at Accrington Stanley tomorrow.

Reflecting on the 2014/15 campaign ahead of this weekend’s trip to the North-West, Tafazolli said: “Obviously we've had the change in manager and I don’t think we have done exceptionally well this season, but our goal was to stay in this league and we achieved that. We should be proud of ourselves in that sense and we can now look on to next season.

“Our form wasn’t great and when you’re losing games you get sucked into [a relegation battle], but I think we showed good team-spirit and fight to battle ourselves away from the bottom two. 

“Last year we went there (Accrington) and put in a good performance when we were fighting to get into the play-offs. 

“We have a big chance now on Saturday to go out and express ourselves in front of the travelling fans and hopefully we will finish the season with a win."

Although Sky Bet League Two safety secured last month, Tafazolli says intensity in training hasn't diminished under the watchful eye of our current boss: “To be fair it's been more intense and it's giving us an insight into what it will be like next season. We haven’t taken our foot of the pedal at all and we want to go into Saturday and win."

The 23-year-old was full of praise for youngster Joe Fitzpatrick, who made his starting debut against Portsmouth last time out: “He is a young central midfielder who had to slot in at centre-back, so I thought I would have to keep talking to him, which I did do for the first 20 minutes, but then started stepping in, making interceptions and he looked comfortable on the ball. He had a really good game.

“I think the young lads who came in last Saturday did really well and they will probably get another chance this Saturday. 

“We have great talent coming through. The gaffer has really helped them in nurturing them and bringing them through to the first team and each and everyone of them have done extremely well. They all have big futures ahead of them and I’m happy for them,” he added. 

The big centre-back added: “We have meetings next week for the gaffer, so we will find out then what will be happening with ourselves in terms of next season. But it's always a nervy time because nobody ever really knows what’s going to happen until it is black and white.

“I’ve been here for three seasons and loved every minute of it and I will find out soon if gaffer wants to keep me here."