Craig Priest’s Mansfield Town Blog: Thanks Kidderminster for the lesson!

For the title winners, the season will be over by time the five year anniversary of our heart wrenching relegation comes around.

With seven games to go we have a real chance of taking the crown, a point behind Kidderminster with three games in hand, our destiny is in our hands.

I’m not going to paint pictures of winning the league as just one poor performance can change the outcome; Mystic Meg would have trouble foreseeing the outcome of this BSBP season!

I’ve played the ‘Focus’ line so many time over the past month or so, I’m walking around with a disguise now, so folk don’t recognise the kill-joy. Trust me people – I want this as much as you.

I was having a conversation the other day which led to getting all reflective on our Conference journey so far.

At first it went round my head in a reflective tone, almost as if it were over already.

I soon felt a cold shudder down my back as arrogance began to set in. Arrogance along with over confidence and underestimation, as we’ve been taught on this journey, can be our greatest downfall. The cold shudder re-emphasised the need for us all to see this out until the very end.

I was pleased to see this in action at Tamworth on Saturday as Stags fans outnumbered the Lambs two to one and didn’t stop singing, rewarded in the end by Jones’ seventh strike of the campaign.

On the way home I was reading tweets about stats, records etc before it the question struck me – how did this U-turn in fortune all start?

On paper it was Stockport away, fifteen wins from sixteen outings is remarkable.

I believe our U-Turn to have started on January 6th, just after the full-time whistle shortly after Premier League Liverpool had scraped through that infamous FA Cup third round tie.

The atmosphere, the performance and the worlds eyes beaming upon us ignited our inner fire to fight back and make that rare moment of light an everlasting thing.

The following week Kidderminster arrived and brought us back to earth, whilst people may look at that now as three points lost to a bitter promotion rival, I look at it as a lesson. If you want your head in the sky and twinkle with the stars, you’ve got to wade through the thickest of clouds.

It taught us not to forget, it taught us that EVERY club harbours their own dream.

Thank you Kidderminster for teaching us the most inspiring lesson at the most critical time.

Thursday’s trip to Wrexham is a huge one – back the boys and BELIEVE.

April, the month of showers – but will it be a shower of success at long last?