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THE CAZBAR BIG GAME PREVIEW – MANSFIELD TOWNAs usual a quick look back at our last league fixture against Grimsby Town before pressing on with this week’s preview where we travel to Mansfield Town in what looks to be a tough fixture.
I’m sure we all have our opinions on how things never worked out against Grimsby, no doubt the overall feeling pre-match was it should be three points for us, but as we know it was anything but that.
Personally, I felt we were losing the game in midfield so I wouldn’t have taken off Grant, my move would have been to bring on Devoy, but what do I know.
On the face of it a draw a was about the right result, for our part I don’t think we ever got a decent grip on the game as Grimsby looked sharper, stronger, and more committed. Both teams had chances to win the game, but equally both were probably relieved to come away with something.
Hopefully Williamson learns a great deal from this about the players at his disposal and just probably a game plan employed for one game might just not work in another, Salford and Grimsby looked very different in their approach to the game, but our tactics felt very similar in both games…..perhaps we should roll out the fabled Plan B.
Up next its Mansfield Town at the One Call Stadium and we are no doubt assured a warm welcome as the last time we played them they seemed a tad upset as an early David Wheeler goal was the difference between the two sides and promoted us to League 1 on the last day of the season.
Below is the current record of both teams, plus the home record of the Stags, and our away record.
Mansfield (4th) – P 19, W 9, D 9, L 1, GF 34, GA 17, Pts 36.
Dons (11th) – P 19, W 7, D 6, L 6, GF 31, GA 27, Pts 27.
Mansfield (H) (7th) – P 9, W 5, D 4, L 0, GF 13, GA 5, Pts 19.
Dons (A) (9th) – P 10, W 3, D 3, L 4, GF 16, GA 16, Pts 12.
A pretty impressive record for the Stags who are undefeated at home and have only conceded 5 goals with a +17 GD and have only lost once in the league this season and that against Swindon Town a couple of weeks ago.
Below are details of their home league games with the most recent game shown first.
Mansfield 2 Tranmere 2
Mansfield 2 Newport 0
Mansfield 2 Walsall 1
Mansfield 0 AFC 0
Mansfield 0 Wrexham 0
Mansfield 1 Barrow 0
Mansfield 0 Bradford 0
Mansfield 3 Stockport 2
Mansfield 3 Morecambe 0
Looking at those results I don’t think we are without a chance, but it should be noted that they have kept 6 clean sheets in 9 games.
Historically we have the edge but there has never been more than a goal between the two teams, and we have scored on every occasion, the full list is below, and they are all LG 2 fixtures.
2006/07 – Mansfield 2 Dons 1 (Wilbraham)
2006/07 – Dons 1 Mansfield 1 (Taylor)
2007/08 – Mansfield 1 Dons 2 (Dyer, Stirling)
2007/08 – Dons 1 Mansfield 0 (Andrews)
2018/19 – Mansfield 1 Dons 1 (Houghton)
2018/19 – Dons 1 Mansfield 0 (Wheeler)
That’s a Dons record of P 6, W 3, D 2, L 1, GF 7, GA 5.
Top scorer and top assists man for the Stags is Davis Keillor-Dunn who plays just behind the front two normally although he does tend to play left midfield when Mansfield play away. Dunn who moved from Burton Albion in the January transfer window last season currently has 11 goals to his name with 5 assists.
Playing Mansfield, we are probably going to have to dodge the “Curse of the Returning Player” and there are plenty to choose from. Firstly, we have Jordan Bowery who sometimes plays as part of a strike pair and sometimes as a right wing back, and in one game a centre half. He played 22 games for the Dons scoring twice, so far he has 2 goals for the Stags in 23 appearances this season.
Next on the agenda is Hiram Boateng who played 65 games for the Dons scoring 5 goals. He is yet to score for the Stags this season, and if he is to bite the hand that once fed him it is likely he will come off the bench.
Next up we have defender Bailey Cargill who moved to Mansfield in the summer from Forest Green. He played for the Dons over 3 seasons making 68 appearances and scored just the one goal, this season he has scored 1 goal from 21 games.
Lastly and by no means least we have a Dons cult hero in George B Williams a former member of the “Cowshed Choir” who like Cargill signed in the summer. He played 174 games for the Dons over 5 seasons scoring 4 goals, so far this season he has mainly been on the bench for the Stags.
One final note…Christy Pym, not a retuning player but someone who seems to reserve his best games when facing us and judging by the Mansfield season he’s having a good spell himself with several clean sheets. Personally, I would love to have signed him when Posh transfer listed him, and he eventually went to Stevenage on loan before going out on loan again to Mansfield last season where he remains today, although it’s hard to say with any surety if it is still a loan as the Mansfield pages on Wiki haven’t been updated for over a year.
The man pulling the strings as the Mansfield gaffer is the vastly experienced England International Nigel Clough who was formerly an attacking midfielder for the likes of Notts Forest, Liverpool, Manchester City, and Burton Albion where he finished his playing days and took on the role of manager.
Despite a few changes in club, he’s been almost in constant employment for 25 years at Burton Albion, Derby County, Sheffield United, Burton Albion for a second time and finally Mansfield since November 2020. In that time the Stags have narrowly lost out on promotion twice, losing in the Playoff Final against Port Vale in 2021/22, and then last season missing out on the playoffs by a single goal. Despite the length of Clough’s managerial record, he has maintained decent stats never once dropping below that average line I keep banging on about. His full record is P 1,449, W 592, D 289, L 568, giving him a Win Ratio of 41%.
On Tuesday night Mansfield didn’t have a game in the BSM Trophy having previously been knocked out of the competition and finishing third in a group that contained qualifiers Doncaster Rovers and Burton Albion, with Everton U21’s finishing bottom. I don’t think we can write too much into any of that as largely they seem to have populated their matchday squad with fringe players and academy graduates with the occasional regular as back up.
Talking about Tuesday night, it was shocking, but taking nothing away from the Brighton kids, the team we fielded should have been in the very least competitive, but they were so far out it, it was embarrassing. I can forgive the kids, they are still learning their trade, but some of our fringe players were appalling, and I couldn’t make my mind up if it was because they couldn’t be arsed, or simply not good enough, I still don’t know now, but I’m even more certain they will be gone in January.
Taking a glance at the betting unsurprisingly Mansfield are favourites with an unbeaten home record and if you do think we have a chance of bucking that trend there is a fair bit of value available on us.
Mansfield 21/20, Draw 31/11, MK Dons 27/10.
EDIT – Strange one this, Mansfield were strong favourites on Monday, as low as 4/6, but the price has eased for reasons unknown.
I suppose now you want my prediction, well knowing how poor I have been you might be pleased to know I’m going for Mansfield, a bit of reverse psychology hopefully. Following the trend of history though, I do think it will be tight, with 2-1 the most likely result.
And finally, with the weather a bit iffy I’ve been checking in on the forecast and the good news is it won’t be frozen off with the temps rising, but with almost back to back rain since Thursday and heavy rain predicted right up to kick off and bearing in mind Mansfield have had a game called off this season already with a waterlogged pitch, it might be worth checking the games on before setting off.
Safe Travels.  WD
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Read the MELTDOWN after every game, no bullshit, just giving it straight
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