Defender Ryan Sweeney wants Mansfield Town to transfer cup form into the league

The Stags were beaten at home by Colchester two Saturdays ago, but since then have made it into round two of the FA Cup and the second round of the Leasing.com Trophy with wins over Chorley and Burton Albion inside four days.

“The last league game was a really disappointing one against Colchester. So the back to back cup games were massive,” said the big defender, who bagged the winner at Burton.

“It’s been a really good week and the way we’ve defended has been pleasing.

“We’ve had two really good cup games and hopefully we can take that into Saturday and start climbing that league table.”

Macclesfield have had major financial issues and players’ wages were not paid again last month.

“Saturday’s going to be a tough game, obviously the problems down at Macclesfield have been quite well documented,” said Sweeney.

“The situation is not ideal for Macclesfield. It’s horrible for all the players and staff to be involved in it. It’s not nice at all.

“But we expect a really tough game. You saw last season – it’s not an easy place to go, and they were struggling last season.

“Now they’ve found a bit of form. And it’s quite a tight ground.

“It can be a difficult one – you’ve seen it with Bury last season, you can sort of galvanise a club and a squad when things like that happen.

“Last season they get on top of you early, they put balls down the channels, they put it on you and pick up second balls.

“They fielded quite a young team last week against Kingstonian but I think they had their players back in the other night. So we’re expecting a really difficult game down there and it’s one where we’re going to try to get on the front foot and win.”