Mansfield Town manager Adam Murray has declared that his squad are still feeling positive with 30 points left to play for in Sky Bet League 2.
After three consecutive 1-0 defeats, Murray admits that it's been a ‘tough three weeks’, but is looking ahead to taking as many points as possible from the ten remaining games."In the last three games, we haven’t got the results that we desired. Like we said earlier in the week, we believe we should’ve got something out of the games. There’s 30 points left to play for so it’s all still positive.
“We still believe we can achieve something and I’ve had some good chats with the chairman this week and he’s as positive as I am in terms of we know what we’re doing.
“Building-wise, we know where we’re taking the club, we’ve got a real aim and a process of what we want to achieve over the next few years and a big part of that is making sure that we’ve learned from our mistakes this season so far. Will we make some more in the next ten games? 100 percent, so get ready! I’ve already learned enough this season to make us better next season.”
Portsmouth, Saturday's visitors to One Call Stadium, have occupied a top seven berth for much of the current campaign and Stags’ boss Murray believes the expectation is on Paul Cook’s side to secure a play-off spot come May.
“The pressure will be on them – they’ve got to come and beat us, they’ve got to come and win. I imagine that is a different pressure to ours.
“They have to get promoted, don’t they? I think the club that they are, they’ve been in this league for far too long.
“They’re probably feeling a little bit of pressure now, they have to win football matches to stay in the top seven now, that’s their view that they can’t get automatic promotion and it is a crazy league, so you never know," Murray continued.
“For me, Cooky’s (Paul Cook, Portsmouth manager) the best manager in the league. I think he’s proven that, he’s got nothing to prove.
“He’s brought a lot of new players in as well, so like ourselves, it will always take time to ‘click’, but it’s a club where there’s always going to be pressure on them.
In regard to recent loan signing Emmanuel Dieseruvwe, Murray admits that he’s tracked the Leeds-born striker’s progress for some time.
“I saw him when he was actually at Sheffield Wednesday and I thought he’s got all the ingredients to do bits of everything.
“Obviously because of his size, aerially he’s very good but technically he's very good as well, which you don’t often find. I think at his age as well, he’s got a good hunger to achieve and to do well, he’s got a point to prove because he hasn’t been playing.
“He’s one we’ve had an eye on for a long time and the two previous managers at Chesterfield really liked him but he’s not been in Danny’s (Wilson, Chesterfield manager) plans at the minute.
“It’s not necessarily about going out and getting a superstar – it’s a piece of the jigsaw that makes the whole thing better. What we’ve managed to do is get a very good player, as well as someone who will make the jigsaw better.”
You can watch Adam Murray’s midweek news conference, in full, on Stags Player.
