George Maris believes Mansfield Town can halt poor run as they head for Blackpool

Stags have just lost seven games in a row and should they lose away to the Seasiders on Saturday it would equal a club record of seven straight league defeats way back in 1947.

But Mansfield have come out of a five game losing rut earlier in the season with a spell of excellent form and Maris said: “We need to get a bit of belief back that we can do what we did at the start of the season.

“We have all been there before and had these sort of spells in our careers and we all got out of it somehow.

“We just have to dig in. We are all still trying as hard for each other but just not getting the results.

“We need to stop the rut and put some sort of run together. I know last time we stopped the rut we went on a little bit of a run ourselves and that is the aim again.

“We came out of a bad patch and started to climb the table again.”

Stags were blown away by three first half goals in Tuesday's 3-0 loss at Leyton Orient and Maris said: “It's not been great and everyone can see that.

“Results have not been good and some performances have not been good either.

“We were good in the first half of the season, but we've hit a bit of a blip now and just need to get ourselves out of it, whether that is a point or three points. We just need some sort of result to stop this rut we're in at the minute.

“There's no lack of effort – the effort is still there as it was at the start of the season.

“We're just not getting that break in front of goal.

“Confidence is low and it's tough, but all the lads still back each other. We know the quality we have and getting a few players back from injury would help us.

“Not long ago we had no injuries and the competition for places was probably the best I have seen at the club.

“Now we have six or seven injuries which has taken us out of the bit of form we were in.”

On his own form, he added: “I have been all right but not as good as last season. The injury really put me in a difficult spot, getting back to fitness.

“I have played more recently and I feel good fitness-wise. It's just about getting that form.

“I have not scored as many as I would have liked or chipped in as many assists as I wanted.”

Blackpool have only lost once in 14 games and Mansfield boss Nigel Clough said: “We had a brilliant game against Blackpool at home when we did extremely well, and we will need a similar sort of performance up there on Saturday.

“I think they have three or four outstanding players in their squad that will probably get in the Team of the Season.

“I saw them at Huddersfield and it was the best first half I have seen this season.”