No presents and turkey for Stags – Mansfield players to spend Christmas Day travelling to Morecambe

While most people are unwrapping gifts and tucking into roast turkey, Mansfield Town will spend their Christmas Day travelling up to Lancashire, ready for the Boxing Day clash with Morecambe.
Adam Murray.Adam Murray.
Adam Murray.

Adam Murray believes it’s vital that his players prepare correctly for the game, so Christmas Day won’t be a day of rest for Stags.

He said: “We’ll be travelling Christmas Day, unfortunately for the boys.

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“We do things properly and so far up to now, the football club has done the basics properly and they have backed me on this one to get the boys up there Christmas day, we’ll be in a hotel and prepare right.

“We all want to be with our families and we all want to open presents, but it’s all about winning and it’s all about three points.

“Unfortunately that’s the way it is for footballers.”

Murray insists footballers are aware of the sacrifices they have to make when they decide to pursue a career in the sport.

“You can have a break in May when the season is over,” he said.

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“For nine, 10 months we get paid to work and to produce and unfortunately that’s the way it us.

“You come into this living knowing what the pluses and minuses are.

“Christmas is a time that is normal business for us. I think we’ve got two days off over the five weeks, so we’ll be in, we’ll be working because we need to come out of this period in the top seven or in and around it.”

The Mansfield Town boss is adamant that if his side can stick around the play-off positions in League Two as they end 2015, it will bode very well for the rest of this season.

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And he has an idea of how many victories they’ll require to achieve their aims.

“I’ve said all along that if we can go into the second half of the season in that mixer, we’ll have a chance of succeeding.

“It’s a case of continuing what we’ve done, improving on what we’ve done and becoming a better side.

“We want to win every game. I’ve got a number of wins in my head that we need to get out of the remaining games this season.

“Up to now we’ve been doing points per month targets we want to hit, we’re at the point now where we want to go for wins.”