Centre-half David Mirfin wants to give Stags' fans the Derby Day bragging rights by defeating league leaders Notts County in Saturday's eagerly-awaited clash at One Call Stadium (1.00pm kick-off)
The summer signing from Scunthorpe United has made eight appearances for the Stags this term, keeping two clean sheets and scoring his first goal for the club in the opening day draw at Crewe Alexandra.
And the 32-year-old boyhood Sheffield United fan knows all about local derbies and wants to give Stags' supporters a reason to be happy on Saturday afternoon.
"You want to give your fans those bragging rights on a Monday morning. That is a great feeling to have as a footballer when you walk off and see how happy they are and knowing family, friends and work colleagues can come in on a Monday morning with a smile on their face," Mirfin said.
"That is a great feeling to have as a footballer when you walk off and see how happy they are and knowing family, friends and work colleagues can come in on a Monday morning with a smile on their face."
"It's louder, the fans are more up for it, you normally get more away support as well. As soon as the [first] whistle goes, you'll see challenges and effort and stuff and that will get reflected in the game.
"At the end of the game, it's three points and that's what we're there to win."
A season-high attendance is expected at One Call Stadium on Saturday and the former Huddersfield Town man wants to put in a performance to encourage the more casual fans to attend matches on a regular basis.
"The fans that come that might not normally come, you want them to enjoy it and want to come back again.
"You want to play in front of bigger crowds and it's the perfect game to do that.
"Fans that don't normally come might want to come back again and see you on a Tuesday night to someone that they might not necessarily want to come and watch."
County are currently the in-form team in Sky Bet League Two with an unbeaten run of nine games and Mirfin believes the prospect of defeating a team who are enjoying a purple patch provides players with an added incentive.
"They're (Notts County) laying down their marker and probably every other team in the league has looked up and though they weren't expecting that.
"I think as a team that's coming up against a team in form, you want to be the ones that beat them. Add to that an early kick-off [against] local rivals, it's all adding up to a game that every player wants to play in.
"You do enjoy as a defender going up against people that are a little bit more prolific and are scoring goals because you want to be the one that stops them scoring. I think that will be all over the pitch; our strikers will want to score against a good defence, wingers will want to be full-backs and so on."
Supporters will be able to login to iFollow Stags to view David Mirfin's news conference shortly.
