Stags defender Jon Olav Hjelde thinks that if Peter had been in charge since the start of the campaign, then the Stags would be heading for the play offs come May, speaking to the Nottingham Evening Post, he said ''If you take the points since Peter has been here - if he'd been here from the start - we'd probably be in the play-offs right now,''
''It's quite a turnaround from being rock-bottom and four points adrift.
''I think this is how it should have been all season, but we had a bad start and young players getting used to the club. There's a lot of young lads who can play in a higher division in a couple of years. We should at least be in the top ten next season."
''The young ones are the future and if they can get the experience this season it will help us challenge for something next year.''
''His training sessions are very good and if players are happy during the week, they play well at the weekend and he's changed the tactics a bit,'' he said. ''He's got everyone enjoying themselves.''
Meanwhile Shirtliff's assistant Paul Holland is also enjoying the change of atmosphere around the place, speaking with the official Mansfield Town website ""The mood around the club at the moment is as good as it has ever been and people are enjoying coming to work. When you enjoy your work you tend to work harder and the harder you work the results will start to follow.
"This weekend's opponent Northampton are a good team. They were pre-seasons favourites to go up and I think that they haven't disappointed anybody. They are up there or thereabouts so we know that we have to be at least as good as we were at the weekend if we are to get anything out of the game.
"We are only nine points from the play-offs but we are only nine points from relegation so we will have one eye looking over our shoulder and one eye looking forward. But after everybody talking about relegation fights for so long it is nice to hear people dare mention the play-offs."