Mansfield Town midfielder Alex MacDonald believes the Stags must start to make their ‘home advantage’ count ahead of hosting Oldham Athletic at One Call Stadium on Saturday.
The 29-year-old was named the Stags’ man of the match in last weekend’s late 1-0 triumph over Grimsby Town as the amber and blue ended a run of four without a win.
He now hopes he and his teammates can put their ‘frustrating’ start behind them as they look to earn successive victories for the first time this season with three points against Oldham on Saturday.
“I think we’ve been through all the emotions you can possibly go through over a season in a short space of time,” MacDonald said.
“We certainly feel we’re at the back end of that now. We’ve had some good performances and a positive result last weekend. Hopefully that can kick-start our season.
“The two performances prior to last weekend were better and more like us, but the dogged win against Grimsby was a real positive.
“It was a game we didn’t feel as though we played as well as we could’ve done but when you’re going away to places like Grimsby in this division and you come away with all three points, albeit with a poor performance, it’s incredibly satisfying,” stated the midfielder.
MacDonald went on to highlight his belief that becoming more consistent is ‘key’ to the Stags as they hope to ‘turn things around.’
“If you continue to do the right things such as perform properly, you’re, more often than not, going to get positive results consistently.
“It’s been hard so far this year but if we keep concentrating on ourselves and making sure the performance and effort levels are right, I genuinely believe with the ability we’ve got in this squad we will climb the table.”
The energetic midfielder also evaluated his own campaign thus far after coming to the fore in recent weeks following a tough start.
He said: “It didn’t start as well as I’d have liked. It’s never nice being out the team, it’s hard to take but the manager felt it was the right thing for the team going forward and I did my best to make sure I got back in as soon as possible.
“I wear my heart on my sleeve. I try my hardest in every game that I wear the Mansfield jersey. Something that I pride myself on is my effort levels and trying to lead by example in terms of working hard and trying to be infectious on the field.”
MacDonald also hopes the Stags can improve their home performances, starting with victory over Oldham on Saturday, saying: “We need to start making the most of our home advantage.
“We’ve not got it right so far in terms of performances and results. As a member of the playing staff I really appreciate the fans’ support – it’s about time we started rewarding them.
“Oldham are a tough outfit. We went there at the back end of last season and found it difficult. Going forward they seem to have good players and they’ve got a new manager who everyone will be eager to impress. We’ll be prepared.”
iFollow Stags subscribers can watch Alex’s interview in full by logging into mansfieldtown.net/ifollow later today.
