Colchester United visit is Mansfield Town's biggest game of the season so far says boss Nigel Clough

Having had a fantastic home record for a year, the Stags have seen their promotion chase falter recently with only one win from their last six league games at the One Call Stadium, losing the last two.

“I think Saturday is our biggest game of the season for lots of different reasons,” said Clough.

“The first one is that we're back at home after several weeks. Our home form hasn't been anywhere near as good as it was last season.

“We need to get back on track with a good solid, strong performance. We have an opportunity to do that on Saturday.

“Colchester's performances have been very much improved in the last few weeks, so it's another one that won't be easy by any means.

“We have to concentrate on playing as we did at Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday and keep working on the defensive side of our game.

“Matty Longstaff is there now so we are looking forward to catching up with him.

“Colchester are one of those teams that, when you get off to an indifferent start, it takes a bit of time to get your confidence back. But they have changed their manager and I think they are on their way up at the moment, certainly in terms of improving what they were doing.”

Stags did try to move the game to Friday night to avoid any potential clash with an England World Cup game but their opponents refused.

“I think the most sensible thing would have been to move it to Friday night as a lot of clubs have done as it then took any potential clashes out of the equation,” said Clough.

“Colchester, for whatever reason, did not want to do that, but that's fine.”

Clough believes his side will be lifted by Saturday's fine display at Hillsborough, despite the 2-1 FA Cup exit.

“I think we will take confidence just from that performance,” he said.

“We were punished twice but 90 per cent of what we did on Saturday was of a very high standard.

“I liked our general play and the way we went about the game. We played extremely well at times.

“I think there is a danger when you go to the best side we could have drawn in the cup away from home, you sit back and you're a bit nervous and tentative. I don't think we showed any of that from the first minute.

“Especially on the back of a 3-0 defeat away from home the week before, I think the manner in which we approached the game was brilliant. It was very important to put Harrogate out of our minds and almost start afresh and I thought we did that with that performance.”