Murray says Stags are wary of Shaun Derry’s Cambridge and their ‘new manager rush’ but stay focused on their game

Mansfield Town will be wary of opponents still enjoying the ‘new manager rush’ on Saturday, as they take on Cambridge United away from home.
Manager Adam Murray thanks the fans.Manager Adam Murray thanks the fans.
Manager Adam Murray thanks the fans.

Stags will face the side who recently appointed Shaun Derry, and a side in form with three wins on the trot.

Adam Murray knows it will be a stern test.

He said: “They’ve got the new manager rush at the minute.

“Shaun will get them fired up, working hard. They’ve picked up some good results, the last three they’ve won.

“With where they are as a club, they expect to be in the top couple so they haven’t got off to the start they wanted.

“Shaun has turned it round so it will be a big game for us, another challenge, but we’re fully focused on what we’re doing.

Murray, like everyone involved at Stags, would like to see his seventh-placed side continue to improve but he’s warning that they’re not quite where he wants them to be.

“We want our season to come on as we go on,” he said.

“We want to be the final product that I have in my head but we can’t rush our journey, our process, it will take as long as it will take.

“I think the steps we’ve taken in first five months, we couldn’t ask for any more. Expectations rise and we have to match that.”

With that said, he’s still full of praise for the group of players who have returned Mansfield to the play-off spots.

And if they can up the ante even more between now and the end of the season, Murray is predicting good things.

“For the first time since 2003 we’ve been in the League Two play-off positions at this time of the year.

“Credit to the players.

“We get a lot of plaudits from the footballing world because the progression the team and the players are making is commendable.

“We’re keeping focuised and not letting anything affect that.

“What we’ve done for 21 games, if we improve that a little bit, take the percentage up which we expect to do and repeat what we’ve done for the first half of the season we’ll be in and around it.

“And I think we’d have been chuffed with that at the end of last season.”