Pressure off for Mansfield tomorrow says Marriott

But Stags are four unbeaten on the road and beat high-flying Southend 2-0 at home last weekend and Marriott said: “We have games coming up now against Oxford and Fleetwood and people don’t really give us a cat in hell’s chance. But we showed against Southend what we can do.

“As the away team we can relax more as the onus is on the other team to come at you and we are a good counter-attacking team so it suits us well.

“Our home form has not been great of late so it was great to beat a team as good as Southend. Conditions were horrendous, but that probably helped us a bit.

“We thought second half we would be up against a right storm. But we stood up and all over the pitch I thought we played some really good stuff at times.

“They are a fantastic team, but we showed how well we can play to take the points. Every one of our players turned in a 9/10 or 10/10 performance.

“If we get eight or nine players in the team playing at that level, we would be getting three points most weeks.

“The fans are massive for us. Footballers thrive on confidence and if your fans are cheering and right behind you when you are down there scrapping, it really pulls you through.

“The pressure was off us as everyone expected Southend to comfortably beat us. So were were able to relax and show what we could do.”

The only downside on the day for Mansfield was throwing away their clean sheet in stoppage time as United stole a consolation goal.

“I was fuming,” said Marriott. “I stormed off down the tunnel like a baby, kicking and screaming at everyone.

“It didn’t see it until late as it went through someone’s legs. I was disappointed as I am judged on clean sheets, so it hurts you.”