In his pre-match press conference, manager Shaun Derry was asked whether Notts County can avoid the drop. “Absolutely” he declared with a determined look in his eyes.
Notts face a huge task in making up a seven-point deficit in the remaining nine fixtures.
The vital run begins with three crucial games against sides in and around the Sky Bet League 1 drop zone inside seven days.
This Saturday at Meadow Lane, the Magpies face Carlisle United, where they can gather some important momentum ahead of encounters with Crewe Alexandra and Colchester United.
Derry will not give up belief of completing the Great Escape and hopes to make big strides starting with three points this Saturday.
He said: “It comes from within the heart, the mind - my mentality has always been strong and it’s something that I have to engrain in the boys here.
“You can’t coach that, you have to try and teach that in different ways, but I’m not even looking at relegation.
“This is an almighty task for us between now and the end of the season and I want us to win it.”
He continued: “Let’s win a game on Saturday because winning breeds confidence and I know that we’ll be buzzing for training on Monday.
“We’ve got a Tuesday night game coming up and if you can follow it up with back-to-back then it doesn’t half change the mentality.
“It’s not just in this camp, it’s in other camps as well and now’s the time of the season to really hit form and we have to start that on Saturday.
“Perhaps some people have written us off but write us off at your peril because I’m demanding that we beat Carlisle on Saturday.”
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