Confident Mansfield Town boss Graham Coughlan looking for Lady Luck and a first clean sheet

Ahead of Saturday's visit of Bradford City, Stags have been sucked to within five points of the drop zone after another fine display yielded nothing in last weekend's 3-1 defeat at Plymouth Argyle.

“The importance of getting to 50 points as quickly as possible goes without saying,” admitted Coughlan, who has only had one win in his seven games as manager.

“Then you reset the goals and targets and strive for them – every club will do that. You're always chasing targets and our first this season should be the 50-point mark.

“You are where you are for a reason. We're not scoring enough goals and we're not keeping enough clean sheets. So we find ourselves in a precarious position. But I am extremely confident we will finish the season strongly and turn this around.

“I have been in the game a long time and this will definitely turn in our favour. Then you might see our true value and our true worth. When it turns we'll get on a good little run.”

Coughlan said he would be happy with an ugly 1-0 win against Bradford.

“Let's be honest, we've been playing really, really well,” he said. “We've been creating and we are a joy to watch at times offensively. But I would settle for an ugly 1-0 win on Saturday.

“I would take any type of win to be honest, but if we could stick a clean sheet in there as well that would maybe give us a foundation to build upon.

“We are really hopeful that Lady Luck will shine upon us at some stage because we certainly deserve a break of the ball and a bit of luck the way we've been playing and working. You do need a degree of luck to be successful in this game.”

Former Everton midfielder Harry Charsley became the Stags' first January signing on Saturday.

“He is fresh and bears none of the scars that our lads are possibly carrying over the last 12 months and certainly the last six months. He should breath a little bit of life into the changing room,” said Coughlan.

“Otherwise, the market is active but doesn't really hot up until the last week or two.

“We are entering that period now and we have a couple of irons in the fire

“We have had one or two clubs on about one or two of our players as well, so I would expect a bit of movement if not this week then certainly next week.”