Joe Dunne beleives wins are not far away for Mansfield Town

Stags host last season’s basement-boys Stevenage on Saturday as they look to record their first win of the campaign.

And the Mansfield Town assistant manager believes the victories will come if the players keep the faith.

“We have to remain focused and stay true to what we believe in,” he said.

“We have seen a lot of good stuff in the games we have played in.

“We have to keep a level on it and reassure the players to believe in themselves and what their qualities are as a player.

“We have to make sure we are motivated to win and the message on Saturday will be to go out and do what you do well, bring your ‘A game’ and the results will come.

“We feel we have been in a position to win and should have picked up more points, but we have made errors that are uncharacteristic.

“Our focus will be on the chunk that has allowed us to get to those situations.

“We have to be motivated and bring our game on Saturday and go out to win.”

Stags were beaten 3-1 by Lincoln in the EFL Trophy in midweek to keep the poor run of form going.

But Dunne says he has been encouraged by the attitude of the players since the loss.

“We trained the next day and the players showed the character we need to stay positive,” he said,

“We are all working hard to turn it around. Lincoln showed the class they have on the night, we are disappointed but we move on.

“We spoke about it and analysed the defeat in training and we want to see what we have talked about put into action against Stevenage.

“You have to move on quickly in football. The one thing that we need to understand that this (poor run) will happen to every team through the season and we are having our part now.

“The gaffer is working hard on the training pitch to improve, we can always improve.

“We need to move on and put in high performance levels. We won’t win every game, we understand that, but if we keep performing at high levels then it will even itself out and the wins will come.”

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