County v Mansfield: Match Thread (18/03/2023)

Grrrr, I did a what do we know about Mansfield and was posting it when I lost my internet connection and by the time I got it back I'd lost the F**in post.
So, here we go again, what do we know about Mansfield take 2? Well the first thing to say is that they are in the midst of quite an injury crisis with, recently, only 12 fit First Team players, and their top scorer, on-loan F from Nottingham Forest Will Swann is out for the rest of the season with an ankle injury. Their record is pretty good overall P 33 W 16 D 7 L 10 F 54 A 43. Their Goals For rates them joint second in the division, level with Salford City and behind only Stevenage. Their Goals Against rates them lower-mid table.

Their A record is actually a bit better than their H record - P 17 W 9 D 2 L 6 F 25 A 18, which puts them 4th in the division on away form. The Ws are Donny 1-3, Gillingham 0-2, Crewe 1-2, Barrow 0-1, Rochdale 0-1, Hartlepool 1-2, Carlisle 0-4, Tranmere 0-2 and Wombledon 1-3. The Ds are Stevenage 0-0 and Bratfut 1-1. The Ls are Salford City 2-0, Orient 1-0, Sutton Utd 2-1, Crawley 3-2, Harrogate 3-0 and Walsall 2-1. All in all a fairly unimpressive set of Ws, mostly over lower level teams but with the eye-catching W at Carlisle who were having a bit of a strange spell.

Their top scorer Will Swann, on loan from Nottingham Forest is now out for the rest of the season, having scored 9 goals. They spread the goals around a fair bit: F Lucas Atkins has 6, then D Riley Harbottle and the departed George Lapslie have 5 each, then MF Ollie Clarke and F George Maris both on 4. A further 5 players have 3 apiece, including now-departed F Oliver Hawkins, and a further 5 players on 1 apiece.

Injuries aside the squad has seen a fair bit of turnover - 3 players (MF George Lapslie and A Oliver Hawkins plus D Lewis Page) going to Gillingham and another, FB Kellan Gordon to Crawley. Coming the other way were Ds Alfie Kilgour from Bristol Rovers and FB Callum Johnson from Ross County. They also added MF Louis Reed from Swindon and F Davis Keillor Dunn from Oldham (17 Gs in 56 apps) via Burton Albion (6 Gs in 26 apps).

Recent form has been reasonable. This year they have W 5 D 2 L 3, they are 4 points behind County with 3 games in hand but they are also in the midst of a fixture pile up. They have played 10 Gs so far in 2023, they have another 4 in March, including trips to Northampton on Tue 14th Mar, before County on Sat 18th, then H to Grimsby Wed 22nd and Sutton on Sat 25th, and then 7 games in April alone - Harrogate and Stevenage at H then trips to Newport and Grimsby, then H Rochdale, A to Swindon and H for Crawley plus the season finale at Colchester. So games in hand - all well and good but I suspect that they will fall away, even if the injury list reduces.

Reading the runes a lot depends on how many fit players they have and what formation they can play. If anything the adversity seems to have fired them up but that fire rarely lasts for long. I suspect they may be good enough to get a goal v County but overall County's D will keep them shackled and at the other end I expect County to net a few. All in all I'm feeling a 2-1 or 3-1. Fingers crossed, of course.

Well done AH. Appreciate the effort EVERY game but a second run at this is impressive.


Top man and a great addition to the County heaven family.

Feels like a really important match. Fantastic that games like this are against clubs of the stature of Mansfield rather than Chorley. In DC we trust.

*shudders*

Fight hard and find
A way to win this game so
Come full time they can't catch us with
Their games in hand on us!

Some interesting comments from Northampton Town's Jon Brady and Mansfield's Nigel Clough ahead of Saturday's game.

Brady reckons that Mansfield employed "brutal" tactics against Northampton on Tue night. Brady got a 5th Yellow card of the season after complaining about Mansfield's approach - "I respect Mansfield but every time you are on a breakaway against them, they scythe you down. It's brutal what they do and it's game after game and I think it's very disappointing that the referees don't knuckle down on it. That's what I was disappointed about - the physicality of their challenges".

Here's the article if you're interested...

www.northamptonchron.co.uk/sport/football/brady-hails-key-individuals-in-impressive-home-win-and-questions-mansfield-towns-brutal-tactics-4065527

Meanwhile... Nigel Clough can't help referring to having nine players out and says he was disappointed to lose Stephen Quinn (for his straight red on Tue night) for the next three games "We're a little bit light in midfield so we'll have to shuffle it around for Saturday". Mansfield are also missing Hartigan, Reed and Maris from midfield even before Quinn's red card.

Here's the article if you're interested. So we shall see what we shall see on Saturday but if they decide to try clogging County off the pitch then fingers crossed that the Ref gets a grip on them...

www.mansfieldtown.net/news/2023/march/boss-on-cobblers-defeat/

My thoughts exactly, Gazz. Cloughie Senior would not have approved, and would have taken Clough Junior aside for one of his steely "Now then, young man..." talks.