Andy Garner says Mansfield Town are facing a test of character

Defender James Perch was ruled out for the season after fracturing his skull to add to the already injured Will Forrester and Richard Nartey on the sidelines.

It got even worse for Stags this week when it was revealed Kellan Gordon (knee injury) and Ryan Stirk (twisted ankle) are currently awaiting the results of scans.

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“We are threadbare at the moment in terms of players, but there is no sitting around sulking about it,” the Stags first team coach said.

“We feel losing (James) Perchy is a massive reason for the poor run. We have brought people in on loan and they get injured, so it's one of those things you have to deal with.

“It is a test of the squad’s character, but it was a test on Saturday, when you’ve lost four in a row and go 1-0 down at home.”

Garner now hopes the point earned against Rochdale can act as a catalyst for a better run of results.

“Confidence has been low, there is no doubt, but hopefully the point on Saturday changes things for us,” he added.

“We got a point and we take the positives out of it. It stops the run of bad results for us and we can look forward to the weekend now.

“What has happened is gone now and this can be a good point if we can build on it.

“We made one mistake and got punished against Rochdale, that is how it is at the moment and we can't do anything about it until we stop making mistakes.

“The encouraging thing was we got the goal back and were not far off winning the game.”

But Garner knows Stags must be on their game if they are to get a positive result at Leyton Orient this weekend.

He added: “We are down to the bare bones but we have already picked a side to go out there and a side capable of getting something at Orient.

“It just leaves us short on the benchand in numbers. We have to be careful this week, but we will have a team ready to go.

“Orient are a team growing in confidence like we were at the beginning of the season - they are on a good run but they will know that we will give them a hard game.

“It will be a hard game, but there is nothing to fear. We won't go there frightened no matter what the squad is and we will go and play our own game and see what happens.

“We will make sure we are ready to go at 3pm and will try everything we can to get the three points.”