Stags’ midfielder Alex MacDonald has described the ‘confidence’ that Mansfield are currently playing with, and says that their good performances should soon turn into victories.
MacDonald has featured heavily this season, with manager David Flitcroft opting to utilise him in a central midfield role.
The versatile midfielder says that despite Mansfield’s unbeaten start to the campaign, the Stags are now determined to turn draws into wins.
“It was another good performance [on Tuesday],” he said. “I think we dominated for large spells of the game. When you go away to a club like Tranmere and you play a good team like them, it’s hard to really dominate possession. But I think we did that.
“It was a really tough game and one we probably should’ve won. That’s probably one of the most frustrating things in the dressing room. We dominate for large spells in games and the performances on the whole have been very good.
“Now, with the performances, we want to start seeing more wins on the board.
“If we weren’t performing and drawing these games, I’d be worried. But we’ve been performing very well.
“The lads have really bought into it. Hopefully now we can turn these good performances into more three points.
“Even though we conceded late on Saturday, it feels when we’re out there that we’re solid. That we’re hard to beat and we’re hard to get through.
“We’re going into these games confident of shutting teams out. Long may that continue.
“The longer these performances [go on], and how confident we are on the ball, these draws will definitely turn into victories soon.”
“It’s always nice to get out of the blocks as quick as possible. Although we’ve drawn our last couple, we feel as though we’ve had a great start to the season. Performance-wise we have been brilliant, we just need to kick on now and continue that throughout the season.
“The longer these performances [go on], and how confident we are on the ball, these draws will definitely turn into victories soon.”
MacDonald spoke of the new three-at-the-back system implemented by Stags’ boss Flitcroft, and explained how his ‘quality over quantity’ approach to the transfer market has been a real asset to Mansfield’s unbeaten start to the season.
“It [new system] has been brilliant,” he added. “A lot of the lads have said the same thing. We worked tirelessly over three weeks of pre-season. We implemented it into some pre-season games and now that the season has started, the performances are really backing up all the hard work we’ve done over pre-season.
“When you take the approach that the manager has done with quality rather than quantity, it really does show on the field.
“We’ve made five or six signings and I think five of them were out on Tuesday. The players that the manager has brought in have been brilliant.
“It’s not changed much in terms of in the dressing room. You [can] have a really big turnover in players when you see eight go and 12 come in, and then there’s that time to gel. The core of the squad from last year are still here, with the addition of the five or six [new signings].”
The midfielder also looked ahead to our next two fixtures, which are away trips to Macclesfield Town in Sky Bet League Two and West Bromwich Albion in the Carabao Cup, respectively.
“Another hard game [on Saturday],” said MacDonald. “When you go away in League Two, it’s going to be a tough game. Like every other team, they all bring something different to the table.
“We’re concentrating on us and if we do what we know we can do, hopefully we can come away with a positive result.
“It [West Brom] is a good draw. Obviously you want to try and test yourself against the big boys. They’re only recently relegated from the Premier League. So we’re excited for that, but our focus remains on going to Moss Rose on Saturday.
“When you go to these big clubs, you go in there with an excitement and a freedom to go and play. Sometimes it’s good to go to these places with that freedom. We have our style of play and we’ll go there and try and be as positive as we can.”
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