Saturday's trip to Swindon Town, who have only won once in 11 games, and then at home to third from bottom Tranmere Rovers, who have only won once in 10 games, on Tuesday night suggest potential rich pickings for Nigel Clough's side.

A 2-0 home win over Newport on Saturady made it 17 league games unbeaten, five wins on the bounce, and pushed Stags up to second.

“It would be huge to get six points – you would probably take four in some ways, though we will be going for six,” said Clough.

“Stockport have won something like 14 out of 15. You look at the table and we are six points behind them with a game in hand. That suggests we are doing okay as well.

“But we have to keep winning if we want to stand any chance at all when the other teams are going so well.

“When Stockport are putting down the sort of numbers they are, Notts County have just scored another four, Wrexham had their first defeat in 11 and Crewe and Morecambe are not far behind, you have to keep winning -especially our home games.

"We are not going to play absolutely fantastic every week with sparkling stuff – three points is all that matters.

“We are over a third of the way through the season now and we want to keep it going as long as we can.

"But we still have 30-odd games to go and we are only in the middle of November, so anyone who thinks the job is done or even half-done is slightly delusional as we've got a long way to go.

“We have another five and a half months to go and we have to keep doing and improving on what we have been doing in the first 17 games.”

Swindon have faded recently after a bright start and Clough said: “Away from home we have had varying success at Swindon over the years.

“It is one of those grounds where they play a certain way, and have done for many years now – very open.

“It's home games where we really have to do our stuff like against Tranmere next Tuesday, but we have to get something from Swindon first.

“The reports we've had back on Swindon say they can score four or five goals in any game but they could also concede four or five goals.

“You look at some of their scorelines and they are never out of the game.

“They lost 4-2 at home to Stockport but it could have been 4-4 or 5-5.

“They play this open way so I think we will get chances. I am more concerned about restricting them at the other end.

“They have plenty of time to climb back up the table. It's happened with one or two teams. They have this little blip for a month to six weeks but they have the players and the ability to come back and challenge.

“They are not too far away and I think they will still fancy their chances.

“With Charlie Austin up front they have got some very good forward players.”

Last season Stags won 5-2 at the County Ground and Clough said: “I thought our finishing that day was excellent. We conceded early on, came back with five goals and then conceded again late on.

“We need to eradicate those sort of things when we are ahead. We mustn't switch off and concede.

“But it was a good performance that day and we will need something similar.

“Mike Flynn has gone in and they had an unbelievably good start. They have dipped a little bit now. But when you've had that good start you have something to fall back on.”

Clough knows other clubs will be geed up to become the first side to beat them in League Two this season.

“With this unbeaten run we have become a bit of a target in the right way, which is good but something else you have to to deal with,” he said,

“Successful teams over the years have these great runs and they deal with it at home and away from home.

“It's like when we went 1-0 down at Notts County – you deal with it. You keep your head, keep playing and you get back into the game. I think we have dealt with it very well so far this season.”

Stags will check on the fitness of strikers Will Swan and James Gale who both had to come off with injuries during last night’s 2-1 Bristol Street Motors Trophy exit at Burton Albion.

Two huge games looming for unbeaten Mansfield Town ahead of 10-day break