Tales of Liverpool whet Stags striker Palmer’s FA Cup appetite

Ahead of tomorrow’s tough second round tie away to in-form League One Oldham Athletic, he said: “The FA Cup means a lot to me.

“I missed a great experience last year when the boys here played Liverpool. It is a competition that can make your dreams come true.

“At the end of the day if we can win on Saturday who know who we might draw? Southampton away would be a dream for me – it’s somewhere I have always wanted to play. But I wouldn’t be against playing Manchester United, Chelsea or Arsenal.

“The FA Cup is a fantastic competition and you have to stay in it as long as you can.

“It will be a good test at Oldham. They are on a good run of results, so we are going to have to have a lot of characters stepping up to the plate.

“We are the underdogs, so maybe they might take their foot off the pedal while we are raring to go and we can go there and nick a win.”

He added: “Last Saturday was disappointing. Now we’ve got to try to put it right. We made a few silly errors all over the pitch. Maybe we’ve slipped into a few bad habits. We have got to erase that, starting Saturday.

“A win would be a big morale-booster for the boys.

“Getting injured in the last round at St Albans was a bit disappointing, but I have managed to get back in straight away and I’ve now played three games on the bounce which is a positive for me.

“I think I have done all right, though I was a bit disappointed with my performance last Saturday. I now hope I can get full match sharpness and get a few goals as well.”

Palmer was the first Stags player to do ‘an audience with’ in front of supporters at the ground on Monday night and added: “I really enjoyed it. I got to meet some of the fans and a few people around the club and it was a great evening.”

He has also recently stripped off for a charity calendar for a special school and said: “It probably wasn’t pleasing on the eye. But we want to raise as much money as possible and we sold a few on Monday night.

“This is a dream job and I think it is important to give back to the community. I am happy to spend time doing that.”