Liam Mandeville spoke to 1866+ on Friday afternoon before making the journey north to Fleetwood Town.
He began by giving his thoughts on Tuesday night’s win over Grimsby Town, saying: “I think the way it ended; being down with the last minute penalty and the elation of Ryan (Boot) saving it, that obviously added to it, but I thought we played really well. It was probably one of our best games of the season, at home especially.
“It was just in such a big game as well, but we need to back it up now. We’ve shown that we can play well in the big games, it’s just we’ve gone to teams that aren’t up there and we’ve struggled, so we need to back it up.”
Mandeville’s goal on the night took him to six for the season. Talking through it, he added: “I just ghosted in there to the front post and Lewis (Gordon) has cut it back and it’s one of those where it comes across and it was in the air.
“Left foot across the goal; it was actually a nice finish, one of my better finishes actually. So, yeah, I was happy with it.”
After making it five unbeaten, Mandeville then spoke about the positive attitude in the dressing room.
“The atmosphere around the training ground this morning – everyone was buzzing,” he said. “Everyone’s happy. I think that’s massive. I know we had a bad result against Trammere but we’re actually on a good run.
“Similar to last season, we finished the season really well and it’s positive. I think if and when we make the play-offs, we’ll be a side that people don’t want to play.”
An appearance on Saturday afternoon would take Mandeville into the top 20 all-time league appearances for Chesterfield.
“That’s been a goal of mine; to be as high as possible,” he said. “Obviously, eventually I’d like to be in the top ten. I’m not sure what the benchmark is or if it’s achievable, I’d like to think it is.
“Just to be as high up as possible is great, especially as a modern day player, so yeah I’m looking forward to hopefully reaching it!”
Lastly, looking at Fleetwood, he said: “It’s always a difficult place to go, I think we went there last year and beat us 2-0. We actually played really well that day. In the first half we had a good few chances, it was that stage where we were playing really well but we just couldn’t seem to score and the results weren’t going our way and we had hardly any players.
“So we know it’s difficult there. They’ve got great facilities, they’ve got good players. It’s going to be a difficult game.”
Listen to the full interview in the build-up to the game against Fleetwood Town live on 1866 Sport.
