Deji Oshilaja stresses one of the biggest positive takeaways from Mansfield Town's Easter form
Mansfield Town banked four points from a possible six during their run of fixtures across the Easter period.
Following a 2-0 win on the road against Doncaster Rovers, Stags played out a goalless draw against Burton Albion at the One Call Stadium. The four points takes Nigel Clough’s side to 53 in the League One table, seven clear of the danger zone, where the likes of Blackpool, Burton and upcoming opponents Wigan are hovering just above.
The Albion draw also means Stags are now unbeaten in eight games, their joint-longest run so far this season. Mansfield have passed the 50-point mark they had previously been aiming for but given the competition near the bottom of the table, the team know they need to reach mathematical safety in order to erase any lingering doubt.
“I think it’s a great two games from the last four days, so I think we should be happy with that,” Deji Oshilaja reflected following the latest clash at the One Call. “Burton are a very awkward but very good side, regardless of their league position. You have to respect them and you could see they caused threats today as well, so to get four points over the last two games is very important.”
Oshilaja played another full 90 minutes on Monday afternoon, marking his 30th consecutive start in League One this season. The centre-back has been a solid part of Clough’s team this season and an ever-present figure since September. He is eager to see Stags build on this run of form and has stressed the importance of their back-to-back clean sheets in what is a very competitive business end to the season.
“That’s the only thing in football that you’re given. You start the game with a clean sheet, and with that, the minimum you can get is a point so we’re massive on that in terms of let’s be as solid as we can,” Oshilaja said. “We’ve got some great players up front that work really hard and we know if we’re solid enough, we can give them a platform and they will score goals for us. It wasn’t meant to be today but we’re happy we were able to keep it tight.”
Mansfield Town improving since last season
Stags earned promotion to League One in 2024 and fought hard to keep their place in the division last season. They are currently just one point off equalling last campaign’s points tally, with seven games left to play before the curtain closes on another year.
“I think you can see the improvement. We’ve got seven games left and we’re one point off what we got last year so I think we can take loads of encouragement from that,” Oshilaja reflected. “As soon as we’re mathematically safe, I’m sure we’ll enjoy it a lot more but I think we will look back on it and think we could have been a bit higher [in the table]. But there’s definitely an improvement there and we’ve got to take that.
“As players, we know we’ve worked hard to get to this point. There is that sense of maybe we could be higher, there’s a bit of a feeling about that around the squad maybe. But we’ve got to take every games as it comes, we’ve got seven games left to finish as high as possible – that’s 21 points up for grabs. If we can get 21 that would be amazing but we want to finish as high as possible so let’s see where we go.”