Mansfield Town won't be fully firing until New Year, boss says

They are working hard to learn all about each other and gel as a team and Evans said: “That will be happening to January or February.

“We did a very similar thing at Rotherham United.

“I can remember losing consecutively at home to the likes of Bristol Rovers and Barnet – poor results – and people said that was the promotion season over.

“But we just saw partnerships continue to form on the training ground and people continue to work hard.

“With the odd tweak to the squad we went up in second very comfortably.”

He added: “This group will be much better in the second half of the season than in the first half.

“That’s why I think if we are in the top group after 10 or 12 games then we’ll go up as I know in the second half of the season we will have so much more to bring to the party.”