Jamie McGuire ready to plug midfield gap for Mansfield Town against Leyton Orient

The tenacious McGuire has played a very important supporting role this season and said: “If I am going to play, I’m going to play, if I’m not, I’m not.

“The two boys in midfield, Clemmo and Chappie (Adam Chapman), are doing really well. But when I get called upon I’m there. I am ready to go and work hard for this team, for this club and for the town.

“It’s a shame (about Clements’ suspension for two yellow cards at Barnet) as he’s doing really well with Chappie – two good players. At Barnet I thought both of them bossed the game and Clem was a bit unlucky.

“I am a bit gutted Chris won’t be there, but whoever steps in on Saturday will hopefully do well.”

With Orient just one place and one point behind the seventh-placed Stags, tomorrow is a mouthwatering fixture.

“Leyton Orient are up there and are going to be up there, so we are looking forward to this,” said McGuire. “We are at home and we are just looking to kick our home form on now.

“It’s a big game – probably one of the biggest in League Two. These games are the games you want to play in and the boys are all buzzing.

“Leyton Orient have spent a bit of money and have a big budget. But we’re not too bothered. We’ll worry about us and the game plan the gaffer has put in place for us and hopefully we’ll get three points.

“We’ll watch the videos and see what plans we’ve got for them, but when we go out there we will just worry about us to be honest.”

Mansfield are returning from a two-week lay-off since the 3-1 win at Barnet with no FA Cup game last weekend and McGuire said: “It’s been a while off now, but it’s been good and the break’s been good for everyone after the three points away at Barnet.

“We have worked on a few little things on the training ground. Everything has gone okay and the lads are looking fresh and strong.

“Not many teams will go to Barnet and do what we have done. We stuck to the game plan. It’s been a nice little mini-break and we are ready for Saturday now.

“We’ve had our days off and rested, but we’ve worked hard on the days we’ve been coming in.

“I think some of the lads did some Christmas shopping last Saturday. The boys have done their own thing, they spent time with their families, some of them went home.

“Then we came in Monday and we’ve been working hard ever since.

“It’s the second half of the season; we are sitting in seventh place with the boys in a healthy position. We are doing really well.”

Tomorrow’s game sees a return to One Call Stadium for former Stags striker Ollie Palmer, who moved down to London in the summer.

“It will be good to see Ollie back; hopefully he will be on the bench or he won’t score. But I will leave it at that,” said McGuire. “It will be good to say hello to him and that’s it.

“I am not worried about Leyton Orient. It’s all about us; about Saturday and getting the fans going. Come down and be our 12th man on Saturday – get behind us and hopefully we can get the three points for you.”

McGuires is hoping it will be Stags striker Matt Green, with three goals in his last three games to move onto seven for the season, rather than Palmer who proves to be the matchwinner and said: “I am his biggest fan.

“Even when I was playing for Fleetwood and he was scoring goals for Mansfield, I loved watching him.

“He scores a lot of goals in training and he’s not many behind the top goalscorers now.

“The thing about it is wait until he starts kicking in, that’s the scary thing about it. When Matt Green kicks in, other teams will be worried.”