Mansfield face league leaders Lincoln in pivotal promotion clash

Mansfield Town take on Lincoln City at the One Call Stadium with both teams in the automatic promotion race. The fixture that has been rescheduled from Saturday will be played and televised on Monday evening. Both teams will be wanting to get the three points as they battle to get automatic promotion into Sky Bet League One.

When the team met earlier in the season, the game finished as a 1-1 draw with the match being very even from start to finish. In the 85th minute Lincoln broke the deadlock in front of their home crowd with a great finish from Kellan Gordon.

The Stags didn’t give up and in the last minute of added time in the second-half Danny Rose crossed the ball into Craig Davies as he mishit the ball it feel to midfielder Jacob Mellis who shot the ball into the bottom corner to salvage a point from the away trip for Mansfield.

The rivalry between the two teams has grown and grown. The two teams are both in great positions to go up this season, both managers are hopeful their teams will go up. Lincoln boss Danny Cowley, spoke about the occasion and the rivalry with Mansfield. He said:

 “I think the two clubs, because of the location, they’re doing well this season like ourselves, there’s a natural rivalry and it drives standards.

“We’re respectful of the fact that going to Mansfield is always going to be tough they’ve a fantastic record at home.

“They’ve got some top players and some of the boys they’ve got playing for them should be playing higher.

“We’re under no illusions we know how tough Monday night will be but we’re in a good moment ourselves and we’ve got a real collective togetherness and spirit in the group.”

In addition, Mansfield manager David Flitcroft spoke about the game and that it will live up to expectation. He said:

“Sky want to cover the game as Lincoln are flying and we’re trying to catch them. And it’s a local derby, so it has all of the ingredients.

“The only trouble with those sorts of ingredients is that sometimes you get a damp squib and sometimes it doesn’t live up to the build-up, but I think this game will.

“Lincoln are flying. They’ve been phenomenal all season. They’ve built a really competitive squad with a lot of talented players who have hunger, desire and commitment.”

Team News

Stags will be without long-term absentees Bobby Olejnik and Hayden White.

Forwards Danny Rose (jaw), Craig Davies (ankle) and Jordan Graham (knee) will also be absent.

Defender Matt Preston will miss the game, and the match may come too soon for fellow centre-back Ryan Sweeney, who suffered a concussion in the recent trip to Port Vale.

Lincoln manager Danny Cowley has just one definite absentee for the game, Sam Habergham.