Defender Paul Huntington was confirmed as a United player for the 2023/24 season last week, when manager Paul Simpson revealed that a trigger clause in his contract for first-team starts had been hit.
Speaking again after the game on saturday, the gaffer said: “It was all about the number of appearances, and he hit that in the weekend game before Mansfield, so he's earned it.
“He's been excellent for us, he's a good character to have, good personality, and hopefully he carries on in that way.
“It’s the same for them all, everybody's driving each other on, they’re all looking to achieve something, everybody has their future to play for, and hopefully we can achieve something together and they all want to stay.
“We don’t have any other players with this type of thing. We're just trying to just keep focussed on what we've got in hand.
“That was that part of his contract that he triggered. But we want to know where we are come the end of the season.
“We want to try and really focus on what we've got to do between now and the end of the season and have no distractions. We can't afford distractions.
“We have to just make sure we keep a clear head of exactly what's in front of us and hopefully that will be the case.”
And, as mentioned when the popular defender joined the club, the possibility of a further season beyond the next one is also on the table.
“The choice is there for him if he's fit enough and performing enough,” the manager confirmed. “And next year, if he reaches a certain number of games again, then the contract can be extended for another year.
“So that's the challenge for him. When you're at the stage of his career, it's about playing games. He's been fantastic since he came into the club.
“The way he goes about his business is you can tell he's played at a high level, Joe Garner's the same, they do things properly and hopefully he can keep performing for us, keep getting appearances and we can keep winning.”