Versatile wideman Paul Anderson has today insisted that Mansfield Town can still become champions of Sky Bet League Two this season with 11 games remaining.
Stags currently sit just one point outside the automatic promotion places and eight behind league leaders Luton Town, with a clash against the Hatters on Easter Monday edging ever nearer.
And former Nottingham Forest man Anderson, who was in a determined mood when speaking to the media at One Call Stadium earlier today, insists the dressing room is still targeting a title triumph at the end of the season.
“If we do what we can do well, we’ll be there. We don’t have to worry about anyone else in this league," Anderson said.
“At the end of the day, we’ve got 10 or 11 games left, 30-odd points left to play for and if we can take the majority of them, it’s (promotion) ours.
“We want to win the league, obviously. We’re still aiming to win the league but if you win the league or come third, at the end of the season or the start of next season you’re not going to say ‘we came third or first’. We’ll have done the job we’ve set out to do. There’s nothing standing in our way, other than ourselves.
“I mentioned right at the start, when I came here I signed for the ambition, nothing else. Us as a group of lads, we’re all pulling in the same direction.
“We’ve got to play Luton yet – we’ll beat Luton and then who knows who’s going to slip up? We’ve just got to make sure we’re not the ones.”
“The fans are doing it, the chairman, everyone is pulling in the same direction and if we don’t believe we’re going to be up there, we might as well just throw the towel in now and say ‘we’ll see you next season in League Two’. We don’t want that.
“We’ve got to play Luton yet – we’ll beat Luton and then who knows who’s going to slip up? We’ve just got to make sure we’re not the ones.”
After working with new manager David Flitcroft for just seven days, 28-year-old Anderson has been impressed by the former Bury man since his appointment.
“You have to take your hat off to the chairman (John Radford) and Carolyn [Radford, CEO] for acting so swiftly and bringing in, from what I’ve seen so far, a very good manager.
“All the lads who signed for this season, we signed for what this club wants to achieve. All the boys bought into the club and the ambition the club has got for the future.
“I really like him (David Flitcroft). He’s come in and shown a lot of respect to the boys. He’s reiterated many a time how good we are as a group of lads and as a group of players as well.
“He’s brought in just some positivity to carry on with the positivity we had before. He’s not looking to change things massively; we don’t need to change things massively, we’ve been very successful this season and we’re nearly at where we want to be.
“I really like him as a guy and as a manager so it’s been a good week.”
Supporters can login to iFollow Stags to view Paul Anderson’s news conference in full.
