Mal Benning is looking forward to Stags’ potentially crucial Easter double header, the wing-back said following today’s 1-1 draw away to Northampton Town.
Benning opened the scoring at the PTS Academy Stadium this afternoon as his delivery from a corner somehow sailed past a crowd of bodies and into the Northampton goal.
The Cobblers, though, restored parity in the second period via Sam Foley’s header – ensuring the points were shared.
And the Stags’ number 3 looked ahead to the next two fixtures, Morecambe and Oldham Athletic, while giving praise to the Stags’ faithful.
“It’s one of them where every game is going to be tough,” Benning said. “It’s a crucial part [of the season].
“There’s two important games and these last four are going to be very important, especially with MK [Dons] on the last day.
“But we can’t look too far forward; we just have to concentrate on Morecambe and Oldham and hope to get the results.
“A point away from home is great. We’ve still got four games left and we have a home game on Friday so it’s just looking forward to that Easter weekend and hopefully a couple of big results.
“We can’t fault the support both home and away and we could hear them throughout the game, especially when it was going through a dry patch where no team really controlled it.
"A point away from home is great. We’ve still got four games left and we have a home game on Friday so it’s just looking forward to that Easter weekend and hopefully a couple of big results."
“I think there were almost 1,500 here today so they’re obviously backing us.
“They tried their best and the team tried their best so we can’t say we didn’t turn up or anything.”
The former Walsall defender stated that Mansfield were disappointed to have been held to a draw following a battling display on the road.
“We only switched off on one set piece and it’s just one of them where they’d get on the end of one of them, I suppose, with how many they had.
“We didn’t expect it, the gaffer showed us clips but obviously throughout we had to deal with high balls. It’s a different test and I though we dealt with it quite well without getting three points.
“We’re disappointed but it’s still in our hands – there’ll be twists and turns yet.”
The 25-year-old’s third goal of the season arrived in spectacular fashion when his corner kick needed no diversion to break the deadlock on 12 minutes.
But Benning, in a humble manner, admitted that praise had to go towards the management staff who had issued the orders.
“Credit has to go to the management staff on the set piece,” he continued.
“It’s one that they told us to do. We had a big lad, Sweens, on the front post and it’s just aimed towards there. Obviously, with the curl the ball had and it missing Sweens it went in.
“I was told to just aim into that area and that it would go in if Sweens misses it, but if he’d connected with it, it’d have gone in anyway.”
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