FORGET the pitch – we’ve all played on worse.

That’s the manager’s orders as City prepare for another Valley Parade outing against leaders Mansfield tomorrow.

Captain Richie Smallwood branded the Valley Parade playing surface “the worst in the EFL” following Tuesday’s loss to Forest Green.

But with home games against the Stags and Notts County next on the agenda, Alexander does not want his players to get too wrapped up with the testing playing conditions.

“It’s just another challenge, that’s the thing,” he said. “We talk about mindset as you don’t know what is going to be thrown at you.

“You got to a game and it’s called off and you go to another game and it’s called off. So, where’s your mindset?

“Are you still doing the right things and are you still being professional and preparing yourself for the game?

“You can look at the pitch and use it as an excuse or you can go ‘actually I am just going to make the best of it.’ It’s how you reframe everything that goes on in your life.”

The Valley Parade pitch has come in for plenty of stick – with three postponements since the beginning of December. The midweek game went ahead after a 4pm inspection from the referee.

But Alexander added: “I just don’t want us to be a group of people who look for excuses without taking accountability and responsibility for what we can do better.

“We can’t control the pitch, so just ignore it and crack on with how we want to play.

“There are loads of circumstances why it’s done that and it’s no-one’s particular fault, so let’s just forget about it and play football.

“I’m sure all our players, including myself, had games where they played on absolute cabbage patches as kids and played there for hours on end, enjoying our football.

“Let’s look at it that way rather than the negative side.”