Gruelling first full week’s training under new boss Graham Coughlan for Mansfield Town's players

Coughlan believes his new charges are not fit enough to play his style of football as he tries to haul them away from the wrong end of League Two and, with five games in 15 days over Christmas and New Year, he has had little chance to make inroads into fitness and tactics.

However, assistant boss Joe Dunne smiled: “They will know by the end of the week what it's like to be in full-time under Graham.

“It will be a shock to some of the players. But we demand high standards and a high work rate.

“It's been a pretty intensive first few weeks with so many games in such a short space of time. But we thrive on that.

“It's been all guns blazing. We've been getting as much training, preparation and recovery into them as we can.

“A lot is where we expect to be but there is a lot we can see we can improve.

“We feel the intensity can improve. We believe in the last few games that we've done well in long periods of matches. There is a lot to improve on but also a lot of positives we feel we can work on.”

Dunne said there would be no let-up on the increased workload on the players after the week ends.

“There will be extra sessions. That's just the way we work,” he said.

“Extra gym sessions, extra training sessions, more intense sessions - it will allow the players the chance to feel and breathe about what it's actually like to work under Graham.

“It requires a healthy lifestyle and a total dedication to the way we train and want to play. We want to make it a way of life with these players. We want to improve them.

“We won't tailor off. We believe in improving standards and fitness.

“Even at this stage in the season there is always improvement to be made. “Experience tells us when to back off and when to push.

“At the moment we feel we can push and the players can allow themselves to be pushed. We feel there is growth in there and room for improvement so we will push them as much as we can.”

Dunne said the hard training and improved fitness levels should be something the players already aspire to.

“It should be a given. Hard work, energy, and commitment to making sure Mansfield Town progress is their jobs and our jobs,” he said.

“We won't accept anyone – staff or players – coming off that. That's the way we're built and we feel we're seeing that in the games so far. We just need it more consistently.

“We feel we can really make something happen here. We are confident.

“We feel with the intensity that Graham wants to play at we can improve fitness levels and how we want to go about playing.

“I think we've seen that in good periods of matches and we want to get that on a more consistent basis.

“To be fair the team have tried to carry out everything we've needed in games.”

Dunne believes that there is enough talent already in the building to achieve success if harnessed properly.

“The group here has previously shown us there is success available to us if we can just grab it,” he said.

“It's been tough previously here and there's been a couple of managers who got close. But something needs sparking.

“We are trying to spark that energy and enthusiasm and an incredible work rate into them that the manager requires.”