Commanding Mansfield Town defender Ryan Sweeney believes the Stags’ magnificent form is because of ‘extreme hard work’ on the training ground.
David Flitcroft’s men have been defeated only once this season in Sky Bet League Two and currently enjoy a 14 game unbeaten sequence following today’s resounding 3-1 victory at Stevenage.
Speaking after the game, the Stoke City loanee said: "It was a big win today. We were bitterly disappointed to go into half-time 1-0 down after how well we played [in the first half].
"It was about coming out in the second half and continuing that momentum. We managed to score the first one fairly early [in the second half] kick on from there and score two more good goals.
"Had the second half gone on for 20-25 minutes and we hadn't scored, they have something to hang on to, but our message was 'can we get a goal early?' We scored within 10 minutes of the second half and that gave us the momentum to go on and get another goal.
"We work extremely hard in the week, with fitness and sprints and things like that earlier in the week and move on to match preparation later on. That work has to continue."
"The standards we set ourselves week-in week out [are high]. We work extremely hard in the week, with fitness and sprints and things like that earlier in the week and move on to match preparation later on. That work has to continue.
"We're still disappointed we didn't keep a clean sheet today because we pride ourselves on that.”
The defender was full of praise for Stags’ forwards after the win, including Tyler Walker, who scored twice in the second half.
"He's [Walker] been brilliant this season. You can see the quality he's got, not only in the box but his link up play is fantastic and his movement is brilliant. He seems to find that yard [of space].
"He had a few [chances] in the first half where we couldn't really connect with and thankfully gets on the end of two bits of play.
"Rosey [Danny Rose] has done brilliantly for Tyler's first one and CJ [Hamilton] does what he does down the wing with his pace and puts in a fantastic ball in for him [Tyler] to finish it off.”
Sweeney found the Stags’ equaliser ten minutes after the restart, and expressed his delight at netting his first goal in Mansfield colours.
“I’ve ran round the post [in celebration] and lost my footing – it’s like a sniper in the crowd has shot me down! But I was delighted.
“I’ve been a bit disappointed with my goal return as I try and get on the end of things. We have people with fantastic delivery here and I’m delighted to get off the mark.”
iFollow Stags subscribers can watch the defender’s interview in full by logging into mansfieldtown.net/ifollow later today.
