Joe Jones: Notts County are in perfect form to face Mansfield Town

So the time has come once again to look forward to a heated derby between Notts County and Mansfield Town, their biggest rivals in the division.

As with all derbies, the two league fixtures between rivals will tend to stand out in any given season - even a poor campaign for a team can retain some pride if they have claimed good results over their rivals.

The 2015-16 season will go down as one of County's most miserable in history - high expectations quickly turned to relegation worries, turmoil behind the scenes, and many fans simply proclaiming they could take no more, especially given the rot that preceded in the previous two years.

And of course we have the derby results. Who could forget those? Neither Notts nor Mansfield fans, that's the answer - but for completely different reasons.

The Ricardo Moniz hype was swiftly brought down by the Stags' 2-0 win over the Magpies at Meadow Lane in August 2015, and the Dutchman never really recovered from that.

Then we have 16 April 2016, one of the darkest days in Notts' history, when they went down 5-0 to their rivals at Field Mill.

Sure, there was a Johnstone's Paint Trophy win in there too, but let's face it, they're not taken particularly seriously, so as signals of progress and intent, it's all about the league fixtures.

The harsh reality is that Notts have not beaten Mansfield in the league since 2005 (seven fixtures came and went since then, to be precise) which is not good form at all.

However, things seem to be much different now. In John Sheridan, Notts have a good no-nonsense manager who, despite a few teething problems, has done a good job of getting the club competing on the pitch again - and results have been coming too.

I would go as far as to say that the Magpies are better placed to go into a derby than they ever have, so for the first time in a while, I am feeling positive of us getting a good result at Field Mill.

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