Mansfield Town aiming for local derby double bragging rights says Ollie Clarke ahead of Notts County visit

Stags enjoyed the glory of a 4-1 victory in the corresponding derby at Meadow Lane and as they aim for the double Clarke said: “You can't treat these games as just another match as everyone will be talking about it.

“It will probably be on the forefront of people's minds and bragging rights throughout the week.

“We will do our best to try to just keep everyone relaxed and grounded and make sure we go and give a good account of ourselves.

“It is a big rivalry and obviously everyone wants to to go into work and have the bragging rights.

“We're all excited for the game. But let's not take away from the fact that it's a league game and we need to go out there, do our jobs and put on a positive performance for the fans.

“We’re going to do our preparations throughout the week and on Saturday we’ll come into the game as usual and do our normal preparations and take it from there really. We know there’s a lot at stake.

“It’s a big game and we need to get back to winning ways and there’s no better place to do it than at One Call Stadium in front of our fans in a derby game.”

On the win at Meadow Lane, he said: “It was a tough start for us, we didn’t get to grips with their formation or patterns of play until probably about 10-15 minutes in – and they had already scored a goal by that point.

“We knew we were in for a tough game. but in the end we ran out comfortably because we ran at them, we pressed them, we won the ball back high and we stopped them doing what they’re good at.

“It eventually led to them kicking the ball onto Flinty’s (Aden Flint) head and we were able to play from there really, get the ball down, try to get it wide, get crosses in the box and we won a few corners. It's always a relief when you score from a few corners.

“Thankfully, that day was quite comfortable in the end.”

He added: “It was probably one of my first real derby games and the atmosphere there and the noise that our fans made from the minute of us walking out onto the pitch for the warm-ups, you could see that everyone was right up for it.

“The Sky cameras were there so you always want to put a good performance in.

“It’s natural to be up for those games, everyone wants to impress in a derby game and try to leave a bit of an impression on the fans.

“I think the atmosphere will be right up there again from the get-go on Saturday. I think the fans will be there nice and early to get us up for it. We just have to focus on each game as it comes.”

County have just had a change of manager after the appointment of Stuart Maynard and Clarke said: “I think the way that they were playing under Luke Williams, they were conceding quite a few goals.

“That will probably be at the forefront of their minds, not to concede as many goals as they have done.

“They’ve obviously got a lot of attacking threat, a lot of good attacking players and we need to stop that really.

“I’m not sure how they set up under the new manager but that’s something we’ll look at during the course of the week.

“We know they have the threats there and we need to nullify them and get back to keeping clean sheets.”

Stags will be hoping Will Swan's goal in last Saturday's controversial 2-1 defeat at AFC Wimbledon will spark the young forward back into a goalscoring run after a frustrating season.

“You have to take your chances when they come and I was pleased for him to get on the scoresheet,” he said.

“He is one of the boys, but he has been through it this season where he's not really been able to get the goals he's wanted to.

“He gets into the right positions but has not just had that luck in front of goal.

“You keep telling him to work hard, keep practicing and keep training hard and it will come.

“Thankfully he now has his second in the league. He's here to score goals for us, everyone wants him to score goals and we were all buzzing for him. Hopefully that's the start of a little run for him.”

Stags were left frustrated last weekend after being denied what looked a clear penalty seconds before conceding the winner in stoppage time.

Clarke felt there were lessons to be learned, saying: “It's always hard to lose a game of football, but to lose it with the last kick of the game when you should have had a penalty two minutes beforehand just goes to show you can't switch off.

“Referees have got to be better and we have got to be better and we have to take that forward now and use it as a bit of a catalyst to get our season back on track.”