Stags’ boss Adam Murray took his first team squad on a team-building exercise earlier this week to further improve their communication following the 1-1 draw with Wycombe Wanderers last Saturday.
After training on Tuesday morning, manager Murray, his staff and players travelled to Escapelogic in Nottingham, a puzzle-solving venue where teams have to work together to escape from a room before the time runs out.
And Murray, who didn’t take part in the event but watched how the players worked together on CCTV screens, says it was a ‘fantastic’ exercise.
“We went to [Escapelogic] in Nottingham and it was incredible. We broke the lads [up] in to teams of four and five and there’s different themes to each room and you’ve got an hour, as a team, to work out how you’re going to get out of the room using different clues,” Murray said.
“I think one room was an earthquake and halfway through the time, this big wall comes down and shuts one of your team in a separate part and you’ve got to work out how to get him out before he ‘dies’.
“Then there was the butcher room where the butcher was coming back to ‘kill you’ if you didn’t get out – so we locked them all in that room!
“It was good to see the characters come out and we’ve done something a little bit different in terms of our preparation for the game this week as well which put a little bit more onus on the players, which they were fantastic at.”
The Stags face Luton Town on Saturday (22 October, 3.00pm kick-off) and Murray has praised his opposite number, Hatters' manager Nathan Jones, for the job he's doing at Kenilworth Road.
“Credit to Nathan, I think it’s (the club) in the best place it’s been in a long time, they’re playing a good brand of football, I think he’s got the club as ‘one’, which is tough to do and he’s doing a great job there.
“He’s signed some excellent players, I think they’ve got one of the best strikers in the league in [Danny] Hylton and he’s been fantastic for them this season so it’s going to be a tough game for us, we’re not stupid.”
Speaking to the local press at Thursday morning’s news conference, the manager revealed that midfielder Jamie McGuire will almost certainly miss Saturday’s trip to Bedfordshire with a knee injury, however defender George Taft is stepping up his rehabilitation from the hamstring injury he picked up against Barnet in September.
“He (Jamie McGuire) got Player of the Month [in September] for a reason. He’s been a massive part of what we’ve done over the last few weeks so we want him back as soon as we can but we’ve got [other] people that we can put there.
“We had a little bit of a, not a worry, but a slight concern on Saturday where he (George Taft) felt, not sore, but a little bit tight, which worried the physios but he upped his rehab on Monday and Tuesday and he feels really good now.
“He was back out on the pitch yesterday so, touch wood, that’s going to go to plan and we’ll see Tafty soon because he’s another big plus for us.”
Supporters will be able to view Adam Murray’s news conference, in full, on Stags PlayerHD later today.
