Westlake happy to be staying at Mansfield

Ahead of the trip to Portsmouth, he said: “I am pleased to stay. My main reason for coming here was to get games and that’s what I have been doing, so I hope that carries on.

“It was a tough test over Christmas with all those games. But I now feel the fittest I have felt all season and I am feeling sharp.

“Against Scunthorpe last weekend we had a couple of early chances and, if we’d taken them, it would have been a different game. Then Hayes scored a great goal and it turned the game.

“We were all up for the game at the start and we were on top. But when a goal like that goes in, there isn’t much you can do. But we still dug deep and could have maybe got a point. We had a couple more chances but couldn’t take them.”

Now he is ready for today’s long coach journey down to Fratton Park to take on fellow strugglers Portsmouth tomorrow in a big ‘six-pointer’.

“This is an important game for us. We need to pick up points and get up that league,” he said.

“Exeter (the last away game – a tense 1-0 win) was a great game and all the lads dug deep. Hopefully we can do the same at Portsmouth.

“They will have a lot of fans there and it will be a tough test for us though it should be exciting.

“The league is very tight from top to bottom and we are only something like 12 points off the play-offs. We can’t keep looking over our shoulders. We need to focus on our game and go on another run.

“Since I have been here the games we have lost we should have got something out of and we don’t go into games fearing anyone.”