Billy Dearden hopes that Mansfield can beat Middlesbrough and stay in League Two as he bids to end his career in management on a high.Dearden will be 64 next month and plans to call time on almost 30 years in coaching at the end of the current campaign.

Saturday's televised game at Field Mill will have romantics praying for Mansfield to cause an upset, and Dearden admits he will be among them.

But he also knows the cup is merely a distraction from what is a harsh reality at the north Nottinghamshire club.

Mansfield, who Dearden has guided to the fourth-round stage of the competition for the first time in 20 years, go into the game second bottom of League Two and face a battle to preserve their Football League status over the coming months.

Working with "little or no money" and under the uncertainty of a takeover situation that has hung over the club for much of the season, Dearden is charged with that task.

While he admits that Boro's visit provides welcome relief from the club's league troubles, Dearden insists that avoiding relegation in May would be the perfect swansong.

"I think this will be my last season (as a manager) so to have the chance to play a Premier League side at home in the cup is a terrific distraction, but keeping this club up is the priority and next Tuesday's game at Lincoln is much more important," said Dearden, who is in his second spell as Mansfield manager following his return to the club in December 2006.

"If I had to choose between winning on Saturday and keeping the club up, it would be keeping the club in the Football League and I will do my best to do that. But hopefully I can have both.

"I know that if the real Middlesbrough turn up then we haven't got much hope, really. I watched them against Blackburn last week and they should have won by three or four - it was a very good performance

"They are a Premier League club with quality players and we have to operate with between little or no money.

"I think for us to realistically get something out of the game they have to have an off day and we have to play out of our skins. But I also know that win, lose or draw we will give them a hell of a game.

"Anything we get is just a bonus now because we have already gone a lot further than most people expected us to.

"We will enjoy the occasion but we are not just going to make up the numbers, we will be trying to get in the next round.

"We are going to try and play football. We are not a kick-and-rush team and if Middlesbrough underestimate us then they will get a rude awakening."

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