Nigel Clough confident Mansfield Town’s next opponents Wigan Athletic are ‘easily good enough’ to stay in League One

Another win or draw for Stags on Saturday will take them to nine games without a loss, bettering their previous eight-game unbeaten streak between December and February.

Despite moving up to 12th in the league table with 53 points on the board, Mansfield Town are still not yet mathematically safe. With just a handful of games left to unfold this season, the competition in the bottom half of the table is set to go right down to the wire. Stags have seven fixtures left to beat last season’s tally of 54 points and three of their final opponents are currently below them in the standings.

“The focus is on beating last season’s points tally, which we’re very close to doing. Another point and that equals it,” Clough said ahead of the visit to Wigan. “Then we’ve got little targets like 60 plus points maybe. Trying to stay unbeaten even between now and the end of the season would be nice, it’s a tall order but we’re going to try.

“Don’t get doubled - don’t let teams beat us home and away. We’re only one of three teams in the league so far for that not to happen, which is good as well. Stockport and Cardiff can do that against us… so that will be a challenge in itself.”

Nigel Clough confident Wigan Athletic will stay in League One

While Stags are enjoying their unbeaten run, Wigan Athletic secured a big 3-1 win in their latest visit to Northampton Town, who are second from bottom in the league standings with just 35 points on the board. However, Latics are still only three points above the danger zone and will need to power through these final fixtures to secure their safety.

Clough is confident they will do enough to remain in League One next season and has praised returning manager Gary Caldwell for his efforts to steady the ship, having left league rivals Exeter City in February. Since Caldwell’s return to the club, Latics have lost just three of their last 11 games.

“Gary’s gone back in there and settled things down a little bit for them. I think they’re easily good enough to stay up, they’ve got a good squad on paper and I think they’ll do it in the next five or six games,” Clough said.

“I saw them on the TV against Leyton Orient last week and Orient had the majority of the game – it was a brilliant point for Wigan. I think they thought ‘we can win next week at Northampton’, and they have done. They’re fighting their lives and we’re not safe yet, I have to stress that.

“53 points and the best goal difference in the bottom half and we’re not safe. So we’ve still got some work to do and Wigan will feel they’re just edging closer as well, so it’ll hopefully be a good game.”