Another double game week for Mansfield Town passed with the Stags unbeaten record intact, but the squad depth took a hammering with four injuries sustained in one game, on the same day Anthony Hartigan was let out on loan for the season. Much to discuss as always!
First League win for Mansfield in dominant display
Nigel Clough’s side ran out comfortable 3-0 winners on Saturday afternoon, sending the One Call faithful to the exits with a smile on their face after the first home league game of the season. A brace from Lucas Akins and a skilful solo effort from Davis Keillor-Dunn were enough to put Derek Adams side to the sword.
There was one change from the midweek cup game, Baily Cargill replaced Jordan Bowery at left back, with the utility man dropping to the bench.
The only danger posed by the visitors all afternoon came early on, Callum Johnson failing to get the required distance or direction on a clearing header and the ball dropping invitingly inside the box for Tom Bloxham, but his side footed volley missed the target by a long way. Johnson was soon in full flow at the other end, delivering a delicious cross on to the head of Akins at the back post, but the in-form attacker somehow headed into the side netting. His striker partner Rhys Oates was looking somewhere near back to his best, twice coming close with low left footed strikes, one narrowly missing the near post, the other well saved by Shrimps keeper Stuart Moore. Akins again got a clear sight of goal following a raking pass by midfield orchestrator Louis Reed and a cushioned touch inside from the right by Aaron Lewis, which released Akins into the box, his low curling shot was initially saved and his follow up again finding it’s resting place in the side netting with the goal gaping.
The breakthrough finally came on the stroke of half time. Stephen Quinn’s free kick from the left was helped on at the near post by Keillor-Dunn before being headed in by Lucas Akins to make amends for his earlier misses. A clever tactic was employed by Aden Flint before the free kick was taken. As the obvious target for any delivery into the box, he went over and whispered something to Quinn and then made his way to the far post, dragging Morecambe’s tallest player with him. The free kick then went in to the near post where the Morecambe players were least expecting. Quinn and Flint shared a knowing embrace during the celebrations. A familiar first half for Mansfield, with the scoreline not reflecting the one side nature of the game.
Again, there was little to worry about as the boys in amber and blue made it 2-0 just after the hour. Cargill sent a throw into Akins, his touch was heavy allowing a Morecambe player to get a toe in, but the loose ball was driven onto by Keillor-Dunn just inside the Shrimps half. He carried the ball to the edge of the box, touch the ball to the right around a covering defender and sent the ball back low in the opposite direction, across the keeper and into the bottom left hand corner. Beautifully taken by ‘DKD’, his third goal of the season.
Rhys Oates continued to torment the Morecambe defence deep into the game. He was very close to getting on the scoresheet when he twisted and turned and forced Moore into a brilliant one handed save after an Aaron Lewis cut back. He was then instrumental in the third goal, winning a penalty after more close control inside the box and a clumsy outstretched leg from a defender. Lucas Akins strolled up and sent the keeper the wrong way, scoring low into the same corner as Keillor-Dunn.
Nigel Clough was pleased with his teams performance, and ‘the groove’ they find themselves in at the moment. A total of 26 shots in the game, 69% possession and just 5 shots conceded, none of which hit the target. The only slight criticism from Clough was that his side were not more clinical, but the Expected Goals (xG) metric which the manager has recently said he sets some store in showed that Mansfield were good for 2.97 goals, so got exactly what they deserved out of the game. George Maris was absent from the game due to the birth of his baby girl.
Anthony Hartigan joins Barnet on loan
Shortly before Tuesday’s game away at Doncaster Rovers, it was announced that Anthony Hartigan had joined National League side Barnet on a season long loan.
The creative midfielder had found himself as seventh choice at the start of the campaign and expressed his desire to go and play regular football. After a season which was disrupted by two long term shoulder injuries in 2022/23, you can understand a young player not wanting another season to pass him by. In terms of ability, I think Hartigan is better than National League standard, and therefore should be able to impress during his time with The Bees. He made his debut as a substitute at Eastleigh on Tuesday.
It will be interesting to see what occurs at the end of season as Hartigan will be out of contract, and was considered a highly rated prospect when he joined last summer. The Stags may have an option as part of the contract, as has seemed to be the case with the majority of contracts handed out over the last couple of years.
Stags unlucky to draw at Doncaster
Mansfield Town came away from their second away game of the season with exactly the same result as the first, a 2-2 draw. This time though, instead of one player being suspended, the Stags came away with four injuries, including a season ender for Alfie Kilgour.
Nigel Clough named an unchanged side from three days earlier against Morecambe. Will Swan was in the matchday squad for the first time since the friendly at Alfreton, and George Maris was back on the bench after the birth of his daughter on Sunday.
Stags didn’t start with the fluency of the previous few games, going from back to front a bit too quickly, missing out influential midfielder Louis Reed in the build up. Despite the lack of pretty patterns, Mansfield should have been ahead when Alfie Kilgour headed against the post from six yards after an inviting cross from centre back partner Aden Flint.
Moments later, disaster struck for skipper Kilgour, as he suffered a ruptured achilles whilst innocuously backpedalling in anticipation of a flick on. He seemed to immediately realise the severity of the injury, lying looking up to the sky with his hands on his head, whilst Flint quickly signalled to the bench that he couldn’t continue. He left the field on a stretcher, and was replaced by Jordan Bowery, who went on at left back with Cargill moving inside.
Donny capitalised on Mansfield taking time to reorganise by taking the lead with a glorious strike. Westbrooke collected a ball into the left channel, with Flint in pursuit but not tight enough to block his incoming cross. Quinn found himself underneath the ball but recovered to block a shot by Broadbent from the edge of the box. The relief was only momentary, as the block was flicked up by Nixon and volleyed beyond Pym from around 30 yards. A thunderbolt which Pym could do little to stop.
Three minutes later, Nigel Clough was forced into another change as Callum Johnson went down holding his hamstring. Hiram Boateng was the preferred option from the bench, with Aaron Lewis moving to right back. One of his first acts was to get sucked into the middle and leave Tommy Rowe to run on to a cross at the back post, his effort requiring a quick reflex save from Pym, although fortunately the volley was straight at him. Mansfield responded by testing Doncaster keeper Lawlor, Lucas Akins cutting in from the right and hitting a low left footed shot towards the near post, which needed tipping for a corner.
As the end of the half neared, Stags appeared to be regrouping and hitting their stride. They managed to level the scores on 42 minutes. Hiram Boateng did well on the right touchline just inside the Rovers half to dispossess Senior, poking the ball into the path of Rhys Oates. The Stags striker ran at Olowu, getting into the box and looking to be running out of pitch, but he stopped and started Olowu, creating a yard of space to dink a cross to the far post and find Louis Reed, the smallest man on the pitch, who expertly directed a header downwards and through the legs of Lawlor. Great work from Oates.
1-1 at half-time, but the break didn’t bring the required respite, as Mansfield emerged from the tunnel with Aaron Lewis still in the dressing room having sustained a calf strain. Will Swan replaced him, going into his natural striker role with Lucas Akins forced to operate from right back. 13 minutes into the half, substitute Hiram Boateng had to be subbed with a groin strain, being replaced by George Maris.
With Mansfield now controlling possession a lot more authoritatively than in the first half, they were gaining plenty of territory without creating many chances of note, until a massive one fell to Aden Flint. Reed’s free-kick from the left found Flint at the back post, he headed the ball down towards Cargill who tried to bundle it over the line before hitting the deck, the ball came loose to Flint just a couple of yards out but he could only stab his effort directly at Cargill who was lying on the line. Will Swan also had a brief sight of goal after more good work from Oates, but could only scoop straight at the goalkeeper with the ball getting caught under his feet.
Despite being second best for most of the half, the home side managed to retake the lead after a mix up between Cargill and Bowery near the left corner flag. Bowery threw the ball to Cargill and clearly signalled to him to clear his lines. Instead, Cargill passed to Bowery, who in turn tried to return the ball first time, but sold Cargill short. The initial danger was headed away by Reed but ended up with Rowe on the edge of the box. His low shot was kept out by Pym but slid into the net on the rebound by Joe Ironside. Nigel Clough felt Pym should have done better with pushing the initial shot away from his net.
That goal may have crushed a lesser side, particularly with the injury issues too, but Mansfield hit back just four minutes later. A fluent move saw the Stags probe for an opening, resulting in Keillor-Dunn crossing from the right for Quinn at the back post, he teed up Maris on the edge of the box who controlled his strike sumptuously into the bottom left corner with his weaker foot. He scored at Doncaster this time last year and he had done it again, a brilliant week for the Stags playmaker.
Mansfield pushed for a winner but had to settle for a point, even though they probably deserved all three. It was another good performance once Mansfield settled down, particularly in the circumstances. Nigel Clough stated he would be wrapping his squad up in cotton wool ahead of the weekend trip to Grimsby, a method he and the players will be used to after the injury issues over the last two seasons.
Team/injury news ahead of Grimsby
I’m afraid there’s plenty of injury news ahead of this weekends game, the most serious of which is the confirmed ruptured achilles sustained by Alfie Kilgour, which will keep him out until July 2024 and therefore ends his campaign. A massive blow, as I don’t think you will find a Stags fan who thinks Kilgour has been anything other than superb since joining in January. He is a fans favourite, a talisman, a rock at the back, and he will be a big miss to this team. Best wishes go to Alfie for the long road to recovery.
Callum Johnson (hamstring), Aaron Lewis (calf) and Hiram Boateng (groin) all picked up muscle strains and are awaiting scans, but are all expected to be out for four to six weeks.
Mansfield’s injury issues over the last two seasons have been well publicised and have reoccurred early this season too. Are they down to rank bad luck or could it be something to do with the training methods/pre-match warm up the players are subjected to? I’m not qualified to say. Either way, losing four players in one game is reminiscent of Bradford away last season where we lost three, although two of those were impact injuries.
Doncaster manager Grant McCann pointed to his own teams injury woes, bemoaning the number of fixtures teams are being asked to play so early in the season. Having looked through Mansfield’s minutes played, including friendlies, Callum Johnson had played the joint most minutes of any Mansfield player, and had played every minute of the three competitive games prior to Tuesday. Alfie Kilgour had also played every competitive minute and a high volume of pre-season too, his numbers only lower by missing the Airdrieonians practice match.
There is some positive injury news, with Will Swan now back and with 45 minutes under his belt. George Williams is also said to be ‘not far away’, whilst Calum Macdonald is available for selection after returning from his ban.
Nigel Clough did indicate that he would be looking to bring on a defender on loan to bolster numbers, but that looks unlikely to happen ahead of this weekends game.
Grimsby (A) - Fan Preview
This weeks fan preview is provided by Mariners fan Michael Johnson. You can follow him on Twitter/X @mikoo1998.
What are your expectations for the season? Expectations from the fans and the board are a playoff push. It’ll be very difficult due to the strength of the league but we’ve got an increased budget this year and have signed players on 2-3 year deals so will be primed to go again if we need to.
How would you rate your summer business out of ten? 8/10. We’ve improved massively on last season. Harvey Cartwright and Jake Eastwood give us competition in goal. Harvey Rodgers and Toby Mullarkey sure up the back line. Kamil Conteh has impressed so far and comes with rave reviews. Charles Vernam, Abo Eisa and Arthur Gnahoua add pace out wide. Danny Rose, Donavon Wilson, and Rekeil Pyke give us different options up top. We still need another centre back, central midfielder and a striker though.
How have you performed so far? A bit of a mixed bag. We outplayed Wimbledon and Salford, got outplayed by Notts and yourselves in the League Cup. It is really important that we kick on now.
Thoughts on your manager, Paul Hurst? He has a small but loud minority who seem to hate him but he is loved by 90% of our fans. He’s got us promoted twice, to the quarterfinals of the FA Cup, and to our highest league finish since 2006 with last seasons 11th place in League Two.
What formation should we expect? 4231 out of possession, 244 in possession. The attacking midfielders play very close to the striker and the fullbacks push forward allowing the wingers to drift inside.
Who will likely catch the eye for Grimsby at the weekend? Kamil Conteh. I touched on him earlier and he’s brilliant. Young central midfielder. Breaks up play, beats the press, drives forward. It’s like having 3 midfielders in 1 at this level. He’s that good.
How do you think Mansfield will do this season? I think Mansfield will be in or around the playoffs. You’ve got some good players (Davis Keillor-Dunn is a favourite of mine), and have a strong manager for the level. Could quite easily break into the top 3.
Score prediction? 1-1, a much closer game than the league cup match.
Oates was great on Tuesday night.
His pace actually surprised me, i do not recall him being so quick!
I have him down for a goal this weekend
RS