Owls in town as Stags look to impress again

Tonight Sheffield Wednesday visit the One Call Stadium (7.30) on the back of Stags’ 0-0 draw with their city neighbours Sheffield United on Saturday and last week’s superb 3-1 home win over Derby County

“It’s a fantastic game again tonight with great opposition,” said Flitcroft.

“You look at other clubs and other managers and I think, at times, they choose quite an easy pre-season with the games they’ve got.

“In the area we’ve got we probably couldn’t have chosen tougher games and tougher competition.

“It will test the boys and is a great stimulus looking at the stats we’ve got back.

“That’s what you want out of these games. They are not just for showcasing the football. You’ve got to get the minutes in and the numbers right.

“They have certainly stimulated the management team and the staff.”

Flitcroft knows exactly what he wants to get out of the game tonight.

“Getting in game time and game minutes tonight is important,” he said.

“We want to look at those partnerships between certain players and it’s another opportunity to work with this back three.

“Again, it’s about developing how we are going to play.

“The good thing with pre-season is that you concentrate on yourself and exactly what we want out of the game in and out of possession.

“You don’t know the team they’re going to send so you can’t do much planning around that. The total focus is on Mansfield Town.

“We did a session yesterday on possession phases and I am excited to see tonight if that work has hit home with the players.

“You want to see all the work we’ve done in pre-season start to come together as we near the start of the campaign.”