Mansfield Town midfielder George Maris says he and his Stags teammates are ‘excited’ at the prospect of causing another FA Cup upset as they hope to overcome in-form Middlesbrough at One Call Stadium this Saturday.
The 25-year-old says that there is ‘an excited feeling around the dressing room’ because the Stags have already ‘shown that they can cause an upset’ in the competition.
The amber and blue have already pulled off two FA Cup scalps this season, outmuscling Sky Bet League One sides Sunderland and Doncaster Rovers.
But Maris admits this will be an even sterner test as Stags come up against a Middlesbrough side sitting in seventh position in the Championship table.
“We’ve shown that we can cause an upset already. We’ve beaten two League One teams and hopefully now we can go and beat a Championship side,” he said.
“We’re in a good run of form and [we’re] starting to get players back to full fitness. I think it’s healthy because we’ve got good competition for places now. We’ve had a few [Covid] cases but the majority of those are back now.
“We’re all confident and hopefully we can [make] another shock on Saturday.”
The 25-year-old spoke of the atmosphere in the dressing room ahead of the cup tie.
“[The feeling around the squad] is more of excitement rather than nerves,” said Maris.
“We’ve got nothing to lose. We’ll go out there and do our best, it’s worked in the last two rounds.
“There’s an excitement around the dressing room at the minute.
“We’re going out there [into matches] and we’re all together and happy and that shows on the pitch.
“[When we were] 2-0 down against Hartlepool we looked around and I think we all knew that we’d get back into the game. There’s a good togetherness at the minute and that’s obviously come from the results that we’ve had.”
To fuel yet another FA Cup shock, the former Cambridge man is hoping for a rallying atmosphere inside the One Call Stadium on matchday.
“[The atmosphere against Hartlepool was] unbelievable and it has been all season.
“The crowd have been without us regardless of the results [this season]. They’re always supportive of us and they’ve been loud. That’s probably why our home form is as good as it is at the minute.
“We know what the third round is and what it could do for this club. We’ll go out there and prepare like we do for all the league games.”
Watch the midfielder’s interview in full at: mansfieldtown.net/ifollow.
