Nigel Clough is encouraged to have the backing of the home fans in five of the remaining eight games of the season as the race for promotion hots up in Sky Bet League Two.
Stags face Colchester this Saturday at One Call Stadium in a televised Sky Sports fixture which will kick-off at 12.30pm.
The amber and blue will also host Accrington, Crawley, Forest Green and Gillingham as part of the regular home schedule.
“I think it could be really important that we have got five out of eight matches at home,” said the manager at a news conference this morning.
“We’re in a position where if we win the majority of the home games, we’re nearly there.
“I think we’re just completely focused on the last eight games which starts with Saturday.
“We’ll try and beat Colchester and see what happens.”
Stags head into Saturday’s fixture following a 5-1 rout at Bradford. Reflecting on the day, the manager said: “On Saturday, to take over 2,500 fans up to Bradford [was great].
“They seemed jubilant afterwards – I don’t think they’re getting carried away, hopefully they’re enjoying what they’re seeing.
“They realise we’re not there yet. We’ve still got a bit of work to do but you have to celebrate the individual successes as we did on Saturday with a fantastic win and performance.
“We don’t over celebrate – we don’t go mad – we just want to acknowledge and share it with them.
“We’ve walked off at One Call Stadium at times where we’ve lost the game and at Tranmere the other night, and we’ll still go to the supporters and applaud them so we share the losses and we certainly share the wins with them.”
Colchester head to One Call Stadium vying to climb further away from the bottom two and the manager warned of their physical threats in particular.
“We’ve seen them two or three times recently and they’ve been very unlucky not to come away with three points.
“They have drawn games they should have won and maybe lost games they should’ve drawn.
“Just a few more points would have seen them clear so they’re going to be a threat.
“They’re a big side, they’ll put the ball in the box and we have to deal with it.”
