Mansfield Town manager Nigel Clough says that his side will give ‘everything’ ahead of Monday’s end-of-season clash at Colchester United.
The club sit three points outside the play-off positions, needing a minimum of a victory and a three-goal swing to gate-crash the running for promotion.
Over 1,400 Mansfield supporters will be in attendance at the JobServe Community Stadium.
Speaking in a news conference at RH Academy this afternoon, when the gaffer was asked to issue a message to the Stags’ faithful, he said: “It’s great that we’re in with a chance.
“I’m sorry that we’re not in with a better chance because three points in one of the two home games last week would’ve made it a little bit more possible.
“We’ve still got a fighting chance and whilst that’s still the case, we’ll give it everything we’ve got.”
Mansfield’s hopes of a top seven finish were given a marginal boost last night with Crewe Alexandra dramatically defeating promotion-chasing Bradford 3-2 in stoppage time.
“Another door slightly opened last night with Crewe’s late victory. It gives us a couple of opportunities maybe, but it is still out of our hands.
“I still think when it is out of your hands and it’s a three point and three goal swing, it doesn’t happen too often in football.
“It will be unlikely, but it is possible and that’s the main thing. Going into the last game it is still possible.”
On who will miss the trip to Essex, Nigel said: “Elliott [Hewitt], obviously.
“Stephen McLaughlin [is ruled out] and then we’ll see how two or three more are.
“It’s just those two [that are] definite at the moment.
“Louis Reed played 90 minutes [against Harrogate], his first one [game] back and hasn’t trained since.
“There are one or two carrying knocks as well in the last game it doesn’t really matter. We’ll get them out there if we can.”
The U’s safety in Sky Bet League Two has been confirmed for another season but the boss says he’ll be under no illusions of how difficult the encounter will be.
“They [Colchester] were struggling down there and now Ben Garner has gone in and they’re obviously safe,” he added.
“They’ll be looking to build for next season. They’ll play with that freedom that the last two teams that we’ve played, Orient and Harrogate, have played with.
“They invested heavily in January to get away [from relegation danger].
“You go away to Colchester and there’s no easy game down there.”
