Stags' midfielder Alfie Potter believes this afternoon’s tremendous 2-1 victory away at Wycombe Wanderers is 'a good starting point' for a successful promotion bid in 2018 as the Stags kept up the pressure at the top of the Sky Bet League Two.
Mansfield fell behind to Adebayo Akinfenwa’s seventh minute goal and they were second best for much of the opening period.
Their task was made more difficult when striker Danny Rose and captain Zander Diamond were forced off with injury but they put in a brilliant second half display to secure the win.
Potter himself drew Mansfield level with a cool finish shortly after the restart and he was involved in the winner, slipping Mal Benning clear before the left back found Lee Angol seven yards out waiting to convert.
The win saw Mansfield end 2017 on a high and Potter is in no doubt what he wants the New Year to bring: “Promotion. That’s it,” said the former Northampton Town man.
“I just want promotion for the boys and me personally, I want to play as many games as I can.
“[We need] more performances like today [in] the second half and cutting out the performances like we produced in the first half.
"Everyday in training, some of the quality on show is unbelievable so we knew we had it in us."
“We’re right in amongst it and a couple more wins and we’re going to be right up there. I think we need to start believing as a group that we can do it. Today’s a good starting point.”
The match was a proverbial ‘game of two halves’ with Mansfield completely penning their hosts back in the second half and speaking post-match Potter believes that 45 minutes is the standard required now for future Stags performances going into 2018.
“Not many teams come here and do that to Wycombe.
“The gaffer and Rayns [Steve Evans and assistant Paul Raynor] have had a few words at half time and us, as a team, we knew the first half wasn’t good enough and we spoke amongst ourselves in there and we knew we had to give it a right go.
“It’s a game that we couldn’t drop points [in] today. Getting three points today was massive for us.
“We’ve shown what we are capable of, we let ourselves down sometimes but it’s time to kick on now and put in more performances like that and start climbing the table.
“Every day in training, some of the quality on show is unbelievable so we knew we had it in us. Once we got on top, I thought we were unbelievable second half. Did I expect to do that for such long periods as a team? I’d probably say ‘Yeah’, I knew we were capable of it.”
On a personal level, Potter was thrilled to be back in the starting eleven and get amongst the goals as he nears his one year anniversary at the One Call Stadium.
“I’m delighted to be playing to start with, I’ve had to be patient.
“I’ve been here coming up to a year now and I’ve not played anywhere near as many games as I’d have liked to.
“I’m working hard, I’ve been waiting for my chance and I’ve taken it today. It’s no good just doing it one week, I’ve got to go and do it more often than not now.
“The win was the main thing but to get on the score sheet - it’s made my Christmas period to be fair.”
To view Alfie Potter's post match interview in full, log in to iFollow Stags later tthis evening.
