Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 2:48 pm
Posts: 4820
Location: In the Armchair.
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THE CAZBAR BIG GAME PREVIEW – MANSFIELD TOWNI never went on Saturday, I watched it on IFollow, and in honesty I’m glad I did, to those that went and were subjected to the antics of AFC, I salute you, but it’s not for me, and I doubt I will ever go again, they will never get another penny from me.
As for the game, well the team never turned up either, and that’s it in a nutshell, I’m not saying we bottled it, but not for the first time we just never got to grips with the other side. Yes we had bags of possession, but it means sweet FA if you don’t get anywhere with it, they battled harder against the odds, and deservedly got something, and it makes me wonder if we have the mentality to cope with situations like this. We are all well and comfy at home but when we travel further afield, and it starts going wrong, I’m not sure we are equipped to deal with it.
Moving on then, from one cauldron of hate to another as we travel to Mansfield on Tuesday to face the league leaders, and after parting not on the best of terms last time I have no doubt Stag fans will be screaming for revenge.
Below are the league positions and stats for both clubs.
Mansfield (1st) – P 34, W 18, D 12, L 4, GF 68, GA 29, Pts 66.
Dons (5th) – P 35, W 17, D 7, L 11, GF 55, GA 45, Pts 58.
Mansfield (H) (6th) – P 16, W 9, D 6, L 1, GF 32, GA 11, Pts 33.
Dons (A) (12th) – P 17, W 6, D 3, L 8, GF 23, GA 28, Pts 21.
With the results list starting to get a bit long, I’ve now compressed it into a Win, Loss and Draw format that covers Mansfield’s home games.
Win – Salford, Harrogate, Notts County, Grimsby, Newport County, Walsall, Barrow, Stockport County, Morecambe.
Loss – Crewe
Draw – Sutton, Doncaster, Tranmere, AFC, Wrexham, Bradford.
A decent set of results for the Stags, they have been the most consistent team all season and deserve to be top, I can’t see them failing now, and I don’t think it will be long before I can cash my bet in on them I had at 16/1 at the start of the season….I did tell you.
The top scorer for the Stags is Davis Keillor-Dunn with 17 goals and 7 assists in 39 games this season, with the top assists man Stephen Quinn with 9 so far this term.
There are a number of returning Dons to also consider, Hiram Boateng 4 goals and 2 assists, Baily Cargill, 4 goals and 2 assists, Jordan Bowery, 2 goals and 1 assist, and in defence of the stats for Bowery he has become something of a utility player for the Stags playing in just about every position except for goalkeeper. There is also George Williams to consider who will always be a Cowshed hero.
For the record and because I was bored, below are the stats for those former Dons players when playing for us.
Boateng (2019 to 2022)– 65 games, 5 goals.
Cargill (2018 to 2021) – 68 games, 1 goal.
Bowery (2019 to 2020) – 22 games, 2 goals.
Williams (2016 to 2021) – 174 games, 4 goals.
The Stags gaffer is of course one of the higher profile managers at this level, Nigel Clough, former England midfielder playing well over 600 games and scoring 131 goals for teams such as Liverpool, Notts Forest and Manchester City.
He’s been at Mansfield since November 2020 and that after stints at Burton Albion on two occasions, Derby County and Sheffield United. His stats stack up as well standing at P 1464, W 601, D 292, L 571, giving him a career Win Ratio of 41% and that jumps to just over 45% during his time with the Stags.
For what its worth we do have the edge in the head to head, below are the details with Dons scorers.
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.
The betting as you would expect has us as the underdogs.
Mansfield 4/5, Draw 29/10, MK Dons 15/4.
So, the million dollar question, how will this one pan out, and as you know I don’t normally go in for predictions, but I am really struggling to see how we can get even a draw out of this, honestly 0-0 is our best chance, as I cannot see us scoring.
IMHO Mansfield boast the best centre half in LG 2 Aiden Flint who takes no prisoners, and the only one I could see getting the better of him would have been Max Dean, but as far as I’m aware he’s still injured. Get past him and you have Christy Pym as the last line of defence who without question is the best keeper in LG 2 and to think last season he was available on loan and then on a free it just shows me how short we came up signing a keeper, and if we could play all three of our keepers at once they would not be able to lace Pym’s boots, he maybe a shithouse, but he’s conceded just 29 goals this season, commands his box, and is a superb shot stopper…..I am gutted we never signed him, with him in goal I am convinced we would be in the top three if not top.
The spine of a team is the most important thing you can have and when you look at Mansfield that’s what you have, and when you compare it to us….well do I need to say more.
The only glimmer of hope I can offer you is, that we rarely seem to play two bad games on the trot, hopefully they are hurting so bad, they go out there and put things right, but the gutless performance on Saturday makes me think otherwise.
I’m going for 2-0 to Mansfield, and I’m more than happy to be wrong.
See You Soon, and make sure you say hello to Susan.
If you know, you know.  WD
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Read the MELTDOWN after every game, no bullshit, just giving it straight
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