Murray: '˜It's time to kick on'

Adam Murray has set his sights on breaking in to the top seven in League Two.
Mansfield Town's Manager Adam Murray - Pic Chris HollowayMansfield Town's Manager Adam Murray - Pic Chris Holloway
Mansfield Town's Manager Adam Murray - Pic Chris Holloway

The Mansfield Town boss believes his Stags side are well-placed in the standings after eight games while still searching for consistency.

And Murray reckons his squad deserves praise for the start they’ve made to the season, with off-the-field issues also playing their part.

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He said: “They know when something’s not quite right but they’ve got the points on the board. Now it’s time to kick on. We’re sitting in a nice place.

“You can’t read the league at the minute. Looking through, down to 18th, there’s no points in it.

“I think top seven, Morecambe are probably the only ones that you expect to be in there at the minute, but they always have that flying start.

“When you do look at the top eight or nine teams there are some big clubs up there.

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Leyton Orient are just below us, you’d expect them to be up there, Carlisle have gone for it this season, Doncaster, Colchester, Gillingham, Crewe, Plymouth - all huge clubs.

“Our next step is to try and break that little band of big boys and rough them up a little bit.”

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Mansfield will begin that task with the visit of Grimsby Town, who lost at home to Crewe last weekend, to the One Call Stadium on Saturday.

Murray said: “What a game to start that than a local derby. We’ve not had consistency yet in anything from team selection, preparation, frame of mind, we need to settle down a little bit.

“Once we get that we’ll be fine.

“We are in a really good place at the minute and after Saturday’s game I enjoyed my Saturday and Sunday because my mind is a lot more clear on where we’re going and what we’re doing now.

“I don’t want to speak to soon but I feel we’ll see a rise in performance hopefully in the points scored in the next few weeks and months.”

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And added “If we can get nine to ten consistent players playing week-in week-out, we had it last season a lot at the start, it helps everything. Everyone’s on the same page and know what we’re doing.

“So to keep having to chop and change, not just for the personnel but the shape to fit personnel into it, it’s been tough. It is what it is. We’ve done really well to cope with that and now it’s time to settle down. I think the key this season more than ever is consistency.

“If you can put three or four results together then fantastic. Again, like I said last year, we don’t want to go more than one-game in a row losing and we’ve done that again on Saturday. We want to build on that on Saturday.”