Stags' boss Steve Evans has his sights set on a 'huge prize' as he prepares his side for their Emirates FA Cup Third Round clash against Championship side Cardiff City on Saturday (06 January, 3.00pm kick-off).
Victories against non-league sides Shaw Lane and Guiseley have set-up the clash with the high-flying Bluebirds, who are fighting for promotion to the Premier League, sitting in third place in English football's second tier.
And the gaffer, who has previously reached the fifth round of the FA Cup on two separate occasions as a manager, is aiming to progress in the competition but warns that Cardiff boss Neil Warnock will be like a 'wounded animal' after four successive defeats in the Championship.
"Cardiff are third in the Championship. I know they've lost their last four games but arguably you could look at those games, I looked at the QPR game and I could understand why Neil Warnock would be disappointed," the Stags' chief said.
"Neil has assembled a real squad of real quality and that's why they'll compete to be in the Premier League. That's why Neil Warnock chose Cardiff over a number of clubs because he was going to get the investment to put that squad together.
"It doesn't matter where I've been as a manager or what players I've managed, in the great words of the great Bill Shankly: 'It's 11 v 11 men, son, that's all it is'."
"I have nothing but respect for Neil, for all his staff, for Andy Dibble, who worked with me at Rotherham, and Kevin Blackwell, who I see often and the owners, I've got nothing but respect.
"He'll be like a wounded animal and he won't be frightened of telling me that when I see him on Saturday. He's a gifted manager.
"There's always a good time to play them because we're in the FA Cup, we're in the third round, the prize is huge for us, probably more for us than them because they've set their stall out to be in the Premier League at the end of the season. There's never a good time to say we want to play someone but we're looking forward to it.
"I've been very fortunate; I've got in to the fifth round on a couple of occasions and had some fantastic giant-killings along the way.
"It doesn't matter where I've been as a manager or what players I've managed, in the great words of the great Bill Shankly: 'It's 11 v 11 men, son, that's all it is'."
The former Leeds United manager told the local media on Thursday afternoon that Stags will be without skipper Zander Diamond on Saturday after he suffered concussion against Wycombe Wanderers last week.
Frontman Danny Rose trained today and his recovery from the session will be assessed before a decision is made as to whether he will be available for Saturday's match, but midfielder Joel Byrom will not be fit for the encounter.
"He's (Byrom) very close now, he'll train next week. He's not going to be at Cardiff. He's out on the grass this week, he'll train with the group hopefully by mid next week.
"We're going to have to make changes anyway; we've got a few knocks from the weekend. We've got two or three that are still below – we've got some that are not in today because of the little virus that's in the camp.
"The FA Cup is a fantastic cup competition, that doesn't change. Do we want to win? Yes we do. Is it going to be extremely tough, whoever Neil picks? Yes it is.
"We don't need to help Cardiff in any shape or form whatsoever. They're already largely odds-on favourites just to deal with us and I think many people expect that to happen.
"The FA Cup is a fantastic cup competition, that doesn't change. Do we want to win? Yes we do. Is it going to be extremely tough, whoever Neil picks? Yes it is."
"We have to go there in the belief that will be the day that they don't really perform and we do perform. We're going to be minus some key players, I think they are as well because Neil will choose to be."
Away from Saturday's cup clash, the manager said that work is still ongoing behind the scenes to bring in reinforcements during the January transfer window.
"I think our chief executive is very much like the elegant swan she is on top of the water and really paddling below to make some things happen for us.
"Carolyn's doing a shed-load of work on this and obviously I'm at the other end of the phone to be saying yes and no. We're making some progress, but we're not there yet.
"Certainly there'll be none before Saturday, no. There's always a case that people may go out because we've had a number of people come onto us and you pass it to players and their agents. We're now at Thursday afternoon and the FA Cup's taken priority."
Supporters will be able to login to iFollow Stags to view the manager's full news conference later today.
