Flitcroft thanks chairman as Stags enjoy training at England HQ

With Stags’ training pitch out of action, it was the perfect way to help prepare the squad for Saturday’s six-pointer derby at Notts County and Flitcroft said: “The support from the chairman to get us the pitch at St George’s just shows his ambition and commitment to this club to allow me to do that.

“There’s not many other clubs I know would have allowed me to do that. I can only thank him.

“We were also allowed to take our analyst team to video the work from the gantry. Everything is set up for excellence there.

“We took 22 players over and it was probably my favourite session since we’ve been here with the commitment from the players and what we could offer them.”

Flitcroft decided to allow John Dempster and Richard Cooper at the Academy to play a young side in the reserves on Tuesday so he could work with his entire first team squad in Burton.

“It was waterlogged here on Tuesday so we went over to St George’s,” said Flitcroft. “It was important we all stayed together.

“There was a reserve game, which Demps and Coops took and the lads ran out winners. They put up a fantastic performance and I was delighted.

“But it was important we got all the players together and put a session on to give them more detail of what I am after, which we did in a fantastic environment.

“Then we were able to dive over to watch the Coventry v Luton game, which I enjoyed.

“The result was probably the right result for us in terms of being able to keep Luton in our sights and keep Coventry at bay.

“With the Exeter result Tuesday was a decent night for us in terms of what was going on elsewhere.”