With more than 15 collective promotions between them, midfielder Joel Byrom believes the experience within the Stags’ squad could be crucial as they aim to clinch a Sky Bet League Two play-off spot.
There are five games remaining of the campaign, including the vastly important Easter double-header against Wycombe Wanderers tomorrow and Luton Town on Monday, and Stags currently sit four points outside the top seven.
And 30-year-old Byrom, who has three promotions to his name, says Stags must use their experience to their advantage in the run-in.
“You’ve got a lot of experience in our dressing room, there’s a lot of promotions in there and there’s a lot of lads who have played a lot of games in this league and the league above," Byrom said.
“We’ve just got to take what we’ve learned in the past and take on our good experiences from promotions from winning sides and put that in to practice in the games and [that will] hopefully stand us in good stead until the end of the season.
“You’re always helping out the younger boys in the squad. The likes of Ben Whiteman, who’s come in and been brilliant, he probably hasn’t been in a situation like this before so when he wants to ask a question or anything like that, we’re always happy to help and I think most of the lads in the dressing room are.”
The former Northampton Town midfielder has settled in well since his January transfer window move from the Cobblers and he says the Stags are in good spirits, despite not attaining the results which their performances have arguably deserved in recent weeks.
“It’s been lively for the last month to six weeks now where lads have been bubbling.
“There’s lads who are obviously champing at the bit trying to get in the team, there are lads who have had the shirts that have, for the majority of time, done well to keep the shirt and I think that’s got to be the case for the rest of the season now.
“I think for the last month or so, performances have been very good and we’ve matched every team we’ve played against and been the better side for most of those games.
“We’ve still got a lot to play for; there’s five games to go and a lot of points to play for against a lot of the teams around us in the league.”
Byrom has described the upcoming Easter weekend as ‘massive’ for the football club and insists they are taking each game one at a time.
“It’s a massive weekend for the football club and we’ve got to go into it full of confidence. I know the last two results haven’t been great but the performances have been up there again.
“We’ve got to take that confidence from the performances and turn it into results really because we’ve got to come away with two results, no matter what.
“I think it’s just a case of one game at a time now; we’ve got to look at Wycombe on Friday and go there to take the three points and get ourselves back and ready for Monday.”
Supporters can login to Stags PlayerHD to view Joel Byrom’s full news conference.
