Striker Danny Rose cited Stags’ ‘tough’ training regime under manager Graham Coughlan as one of the reasons they were able to hold out for an important three points at home to Newport County AFC on Saturday.
The 26-year-old netted the game’s decisive goal in the 29th minute of the affair, with Mansfield preserving a clean sheet in tough weather conditions at One Call Stadium.
The forward says that, due to triple sessions – implemented by the boss on Tuesdays and Thursdays - the Stags are now covering more distance in matches.
“It’s been tough [under Graham Coughlan] but it’s good,” said Rose. “We’re getting fitter and we’re enjoying getting fitter.
“It showed on Saturday because we dug in late on and got the three points.
“We defended for our lives and we got the three points. We’ve played like that a few times this season but have been letting ourselves down in the last five or ten minutes.
“On Tuesdays and Thursdays we have two gym sessions, one before training and one after. Training is tough and the running is tough – we get hard work out of it.
“I feel good and the lads do as well. The distances we’re covering in games show that we are getting there.
“We’ll continue to improve and hopefully we can now end on a positive in order to build something for next season.”
The former Barnsley striker says that the Mansfield squad want to end the season on a positive note, using the remaining fixtures in Sky Bet League Two to inject confidence back into the side ahead of next term.
“We just have to use it [win against Newport] as a stepping stone to now go against Cheltenham and try and get a positive result there,” added Rose.
“We need to get back-to-back victories, so if we do that, it can push us up the league. We just want to have a positive end to the season and try to build something towards next season.
“We want to try and get some confidence back into the team as we know we’ve not been good enough this season. Hopefully we can give the fans something to shout about from now until the end of the season.
“I’m hoping next season we can kick on, because the squad we have is more than capable of being at the right end of the table.”
Looking ahead to Saturday’s fixture away at Cheltenham, the forward added: “Cheltenham away on Saturday is going to be a very tough game. Their home form is very good and they’re right up there.
“It will be a tough game but we’re hoping to go there and get a positive result. We’ll go there knowing we can upset any side on our day.
“If we do what we did against Newport – because we played some good stuff in tough conditions – we can cause a little bit of an upset.”
iFollow Stags subscribers can watch Danny’s interview in full by logging into mansfieldtown.net/ifollow later today.
