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Archived News from August 2021

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13th August 2021 10:56


I love cup competitions - manager
mansfieldtown.net, Mon 8 Aug 2021

Boss Nigel Clough has said he will not make ‘too many’ changes for tomorrow’s first round Carabao Cup match at home to Championship side Preston North End, as he ‘loves’ the possibilities cup competitions can create.

The manager, speaking less than 48 hours after Stags’ dramatic 2-1 win over Bristol Rovers on the campaign’s opening day, looked ahead to Tuesday evening’s fixture, the reverse of last season’s first round clash.

Nigel Clough said that he wants to see his side maintain ‘an even share of the ball’ against the Championship outfit, but warned his players to prepare for a ‘reaction,’ following the Lilywhites’ surprise 4-1 defeat to Hull City on Saturday.

https://www.mansfieldtown.net/news/2021/august/i-love-cup-competitions---manager/

“We’re going to try and win the game,” he told iFollow Stags. “We’ll make a few changes, not too many, and they’ll be based on knocks and things.

“Then we have a couple of lads who are absolutely champing at the bit to play games, and George Lapslie is one. He’ll be starting.

“Not sure [if Preston will be at full strength] after Saturday [4-1 defeat to Hull City]. It’s difficult to tell, as it was a very surprising result.

“What we do expect is a reaction from them [Preston]. They’ll want to win a game and get Saturday out of their system.

“I hope we’ve got an even share of the ball tomorrow. I think that’s one of our strengths, our ability on the ball.

“We’ve seen from the [games against] Championship teams in pre-season, that when we’ve got it, we can cause problems as well.

“We possibly don’t keep it as well as them [Preston], but I’d expect us to have a decent amount of possession.

“I love cup competitions, I love them all. And we’ll go out to try and win [tomorrow]. All the teams have a chance of getting to Wembley or facing a big team, but you have to get through these early rounds.”

Reflecting on Saturday’s incredible opening day win against Bristol Rovers, which was sealed by Danny Johnson’s stoppage time penalty, the boss says the nature of the victory will take ‘some beating.’

“I’m just getting my breath back really [from Bristol Rovers win],” he added. “When you win a game, especially on the opening day with all the emotions of the fans returning, it [will have] took some beating winning in the 95th minute.

“It was great to win the game. It’s only one game, but it felt more than that. I think we can play better, but I understand that we may have been a little bit nervous.

“I remember quite a few years ago from [when I was] playing, those first day nerves take your breath away, and you’re gasping for oxygen at times no matter what you’ve done in pre-season.

“We found a way to win and restricted a good team to very few opportunities. I thought we were in control of the game up to the stunning strike [from Cian Harries] which came out of absolutely nowhere.

“It was good to have a referee [Joshua Smith] brave enough to give it [penalty] in the 95th minute. With the sending off [to Paul Coutts], he’s raised his arm and he [referee] is justified in both of his decisions.

“It [dressing room] was excitable [after the game] and euphoric, but there was also a realisation that we have to play better. I think we can get the ball down and play as we did in pre-season.”

With the boss still looking to bring another defender to One Call Stadium, he provided the latest update on the transfer front.

“It [signing a defender] is not quite straightforward. But we’re making progress.

“We have three weeks before the window shuts, so we’ll try to get it tied up as soon as we can.”

There was also news on defender Elliott Hewitt and midfielder Harry Charsley, who both missed Saturday’s win due to thigh injuries.

“I think they [Hewitt and Charsley] are still going to be missing [for Preston game] unfortunately. They’re not quite right yet.

“They’re getting there, maybe another week or something like that. We don’t want to risk them, so we’ll make sure they’re right before they come back.”

iFollow Stags subscribers can watch the manager’s interview in full by logging into mansfieldtown.net/ifollow.

To purchase tickets for Tuesday’s cup clash against Preston North End, head to stagstickets.co.uk.

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Frankie To Have Forwards Back Available For Mansfield
pnefc.net

Frankie McAvoy will have Sean Maguire and Scott Sinclair available for selection again for tomorrow’s Carabao Cup tie against Mansfield Town.

The forwards missed the weekend’s season opener against Hull City due to isolation, but they will be in contention to play in the first round tie on Tuesday evening.

Frankie told iFollow PNE: “Scott Sinclair and Sean Maguire will both be back in today so we'll welcome them back and they’ll be available for selection tomorrow night.

https://www.pnefc.net/news/2021/august/frankie-to-have-forwards-back-available-for-mansfield/

“It’s the same as we were on Saturday, we’ve got a full squad now with Seani and Scotty back in to select from, and that’s what we’ll do. We’ll try and pick the best team to go and try and win the game.

“For me, every game, no matter what it is, is a game that we should go and try and win. That’s what we’re paid to do and we’ll try and do that tomorrow night.”

One man who won’t be ready to play against Mansfield is goalkeeper Declan Rudd, who was forced off on Saturday with concussion.

He took a knock just a couple of minutes into the game and the circumstances of the injury is something which has frustrated Frankie, with the Hull forward involved in the collision coming from an offside position.

He said: “He’s back in this morning but obviously Declan’s got a bit of concussion so obviously there’s clear protocols in place that we need to follow, so I think it’s a minimum of seven, maximum of ten days so we just need to make sure that we carry the protocols out to the letter of the law.

“It’s one of the instances that happens in football, one of the rules which I have a personal disliking to. When somebody’s clearly offside, attempts to go for the ball, you wait five or ten seconds sometimes after it to see what happens before the flag goes up and unfortunately it culminates in Declan getting himself injured.

“But I don’t make the rules, we just need to go by them and do the best we can. But I would say that anybody, any player on the pitch, whether you’re in goal or outfield, that when you see the ball coming towards your goal you’re going to try and do anything that you can within your power to try and stop it going towards the goal.

“Declan did that, unfortunately he got injured and it was due to an offside decision where I felt he probably could have blown the whistle earlier and the linesman put his flag up earlier.”

Looking ahead to the match on Tuesday evening, Frankie and his team will come up against a Mansfield side widely tipped for promotion.

They had a positive pre-season period, beating sides in divisions higher than themselves, before then starting the League Two season with a victory at the weekend.

“It’ll be a very tough game," added Frankie. "They play a diamond, the system we changed it to on Saturday. They’re very energetic, I don’t think it’s going to be an easy game by any means at all.

“They’ve done extremely well, they’re fancied to go up from League Two. They have a good manager in Nigel Clough who I know, very experienced, he’s been about the block, and his teams are always very, very difficult to play against.

“We’ve watched them, we’ve seen that they beat Hull 2-1 at Hull [in pre-season] and they beat Coventry as well, so this will be an extremely difficult game and we need to be at full tilt to go and try and win the game and that’s what we’ll try and do.”

Watch Frankie's full interview at the top of the page.

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Latest | August 2021