Stags’ manager Adam Murray wants the whole club to collectively play their part to defeat local rivals Notts County at One Call Stadium this Saturday (1pm kick-off).
The hosts are in confident mood after beating Carlisle United 2-1 in their last outing, thanks to goals from left-back Colin Daniel and winger Reggie Lambe.
The Magpies are on a four-match unbeaten run coming into the contest, and boss Murray has called on the entire club staff to contribute towards retaining the bragging rights in Sky Bet League 2 between the two sides.
“Our lads play with a lot of fight and spirit every game so the energy will be cranked up for this one. We need to make sure we do our job as Mansfield people in the stadium on Saturday from supporters, to catering staff, to my staff, to the playing staff and to [the] directors,” Murray said.
“Everything goes out of the window in terms of form and what kind of season you’ve had. It’s a local derby, it’ll be ‘blood and thunder’ and we’re up for it.”
Reflecting on recent weeks, the 34-year-old gaffer says the Stags can count themselves unlucky for slightly losing ground in the play-off race, but they must build on the victory against Carlisle and concentrate on their remaining fixtures.
“We’re frustrated because even in those two games, Hartlepool and Northampton, we should have won them – we were in pole position in both of them. Decisions, penalties and sending offs have cost us – if we took the six points from there, you’re in the play-offs.
“That’s how close it is, and how close we are as a club. We’ve got five real good games that we believe we can go into and get points. We’re in a good place, we’re focused on the last five games and [we’ve] got half an eye on next season and what we need to do to improve.
“We’re going to have to win four out of five games [for the play-offs]. Because there is so many teams in that little pack fighting for one spot, it’s going to be extremely hard, but for us to be having this conversation shows progress – we’re happy with that.”
Murray says that belief is high in his camp as he looks forward to the grudge encounter at the weekend, against a team which are eight points below the Stags in the division.
“With the money they spent and the resources they’ve got, they should be a top five team in this league; everybody would agree with that. They’ve obviously had some ups and downs this season but it’s a big club.
“I know Coops (Mark Cooper, County manager), he was a very good footballer as a player. He did a great job at Swindon, [I’m] shocked to be honest that it took him so long to get back in the game after what he did there. He’ll get them playing the right way and get them working for him.
“We’ve all got to make sure we beat Notts County on Saturday and we do that by giving everything we’ve got. If we’d have got the rub of the green [in the past few games] we’d have been in the play-offs now, so we are very confident in our ability.”
Murray has expressed his ambition for Mansfield to end the 2015-16 campaign on a positive note, and reckons it’s the least his players deserve following their luckless blip.
“We’ve got to play [against Notts] with a lot of intelligence, they’re a good team. As an occasion, these are the games you want to be involved in. You don’t need any motivation for this, it’s one of the biggest games of the season.
“Why can’t we go unbeaten from now until the end of the season? In the spell we’ve had, we’ve earned at least three and a half weeks of luck so hopefully that comes in at the end of the season, starting on Saturday.”
You can view Adam Murray’s full news conference on Stags Player HD.
