Stags' boss Steve Evans believes his side should be 'seven or eight points' better off than their current total of 33 points in Sky Bet League Two and is hoping to re-claim a place in the top seven with a win over Morecambe this Saturday.
Of their 22 games, Stags have won eight, drawn nine and lost five – the amount of stalemates being the highest in League Two this season.
And had we turned some of our dominant performances into wins – such as last week's 0-0 draw with Yeovil Town – the boss believes we would be sitting deservedly closer to the top of Sky Bet League Two.
"We're frustrated, aren't we? There's no question that we should be seven or eight points better off, no more than that, which would have put us up towards third position," the Stags' chief said.
"That's probably where we should be, third or fourth, but we're not, we're a little bit away from that at the minute. We'll keep working hard and see where it takes us. We've always said that we'll be much better in the second half [of the season].
"I expected us to be in the top seven by the time we sit down for Christmas Day; we still have an opportunity to do that, despite our frustrations, and then we've got two tough away days on the road, so it's a busy week coming up for us.
"It's one defeat in 14, which would be a commendable record, but [there's been] far too many shared games in there. We need to put teams away when we're so far on top, like we were against Yeovil."
Despite his belief that Stags should be higher than they are in League Two, the gaffer recognises that the league table is still very tight, with just over half of the season still remaining.
"I expected us to be in the top seven by the time we sit down for Christmas Day; we still have an opportunity to do that, despite our frustrations, and then we've got two tough away days on the road, so it's a busy week coming up for us."
"We have to keep changing it around and tweaking it around until we get back to winning ways. That will come; we were winning sweetly a couple of weeks ago.
"It was very interesting this morning on the television, I was listening to Gareth Ainsworth saying they would be so disappointed at Wycombe if they're not in the top three, and I can understand that with the squad he's got.
"We're four points behind them and we're frustrated and pulling any hair out that we've got left, so it tells you that it's very tight still."
Midfielder Joel Byrom and striker Kane Hemmings, who have been missing since the draw against Chesterfield and victory over Port Vale, respectively, are still recovering from their injuries and the former Leeds United manager has hinted at the possibility of adding reinforcements in both positions in the upcoming January transfer window.
"We're not going to rush them, but there will be a player arriving in January that can play in that position. Joel's been missing far too much of the season with a couple of injuries that have been longer than anyone would wish.
"He knew when he signed that he would be a pivotal player for us and we tried to get another one in a couple of days before the deadline back in August that we couldn't get in that would've been able to give us that commanding place in the side that we play through. We weren't able to get that one, but we won't not make that happen in January.
"There's a couple of strikers doing very well in our league that we tried to buy last summer, but we couldn't afford the packages that those lads went on, despite people thinking about the money at Mansfield. They want to have a reality [check] about what goes on around the league and who's spending the money.
"We'll try and go about our business professionally, diligently and quietly, as we've done with all of our signings. A lot of our signings, people didn't know until they were announced and that's the way others will be.
"There will be no speculation we're getting involved in in January and we won't allow other clubs to use us for the benefit of getting a transfer fee or trying to get a player a move. If we get linked, we'll quickly dispel it or we'll stay quiet and try and make it happen."
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