Mansfield Town boss Graham Coughlan wants to go toe-to-toe with League Two leaders Swindon Town

The Stags manager is adamant that the best way of beating the Robins is by playing to their own strengths.

When asked if he would be paying special attention to his defence in training this week ahead of hosting the side who have netted 60 times in 34 league contests, Coughlan's message was simple.

"When you work on defending you don't score down the other end. You work on scoring, you don't defend down the other end. I think there has to be a balance," he said.

"I don’t think we can concentrate on one end of the park in particular.

"We normally do a lot of work on offensive and defensive work, we normally split our days up in the week where one day's spent on one department and another day's concentrated on the other. So I won't concentrate solely on defending.

"If anything we are looking a little more solid, a bit tighter and we are looking a dangerous outfit on the front foot when we go after teams. We won't change too much."

Although Coughlan wants to take the game to Swindon, he admits the Robins will be no pushovers.

"You can't ask for bigger, you can't ask for better. They're miles ahead of every other team in this division. They’re top of the league, winning games of football," he continued.

"For us to come close to them on Saturday, for us to give them a good competitive game, a good examination, it will take all our players to turn up, to give an eight or nine out of 10 performance.

"I believe we can do that. I believe the lads can do that. It's a game I'm really looking forward to.

"We played Cheltenham, we played them off the park. We played Plymouth, we played them off the park. But yet we haven't won football matches. I keep harping on back to that old broken record, I know, but it's a great game to go into.

“I can't wait because I do believe our lads are turning a corner. It’s slowly but surely starting to change."