Veteran defender James Perch is happy to stay at Mansfield Town if wanted

The 37-year-old former Newcastle United and Forest man has battled back from a fractured skull early last season and been an important part of the squad and, now out of contract, said: “I am more than happy to be here if the gaffer wants me or the club wants me.

“I am in no rush. The gaffer knows me and knows I will sign here, so we will see what he does.

“We will have a talk this week and if he wants me I'll stay.”

Stags missed out on the play-offs by a single goal on goal difference on Saturday and Perch said: “It's hard to take.

“We've played for nine-10 months and it comes down to one goal being conceded.

“You can look at the goals we've conceded late on, especially against Crawley and Swindon. If we'd not done that and we'd concentrated for the full 90 minutes we'd have been in the play-offs now.

“Those times when you're 4-0 up and cruising in games and then we take our foot off the gas and don't carry on doing what we've been doing, we get hit by a sucker punch.

“It doesn't affect the game at the time but over the course of a season those goals can really hurt you and we've felt that today

“For the last God knows how many years 75 points has got you in the play-offs. This year it hasn't.

“But I think we've done well considering the injuries.”

He added: “It was quite flat in the dressing room at the final whistle but the gaffer said dust yourselves off and come back next year, none of this play-offs rubbish next year, we want to get top three and that is the aim.

“With a bit of luck on our side we can do that as we have enough quality in that dressing room. I think we showed that again at Colchester – some of the football we played was brilliant.

“We have the best away record in the league and need to take that on to next season and up our home form then I think we will be right up there.”

Perch said the players would no spend some time with their families and recharge their batteries.

“We will all go home now and maybe not see each other for four or five weeks,” he said.

“We will spend some time with our families as they really do suffer throughout the season when you're so dedicated to be professional with nights away and late night games.

“When you have young kids it's hard for them. They have been brilliant and now we will spend some quality time with them for a few weeks.”