Struggling Mansfield face last-place Scunthorpe in Sky Bet League Two

Mansfield Town face Scunthorpe United at the One Call Stadium with both sides struggling early on in the season.

Mansfield Town currently sit in 19th place and go into this game after losing against Exeter 1-0 last Saturday; the Stags face 24th-placed Scunthorpe, a side yet to record a victory in the league.

Team news

Midfielder Neal Bishop, who has been recently sidelined with an Achilles injury, could be in contention to feature this weekend, as confirmed by manager John Dempster in Tuesday morning’s news conference.

Goalkeeper Bobby Olejnik has returned to full-time training but Saturday’s match will likely come to soon, with the manager expecting the Austrian shot-stopper to be available over the next couple of weeks.

Strikers Craig Davies and Andy Cook will miss the game due to their respective ankle and knee injuries. Fellow forward Jordan Graham will also be absent due to a knee injury.

Defender Ryan Sweeney will be available for selection after having his red card against Exeter City rescinded in midweek.

The Iron will likely be without the quartet of Lewis Butroid, Lee Novak, Andy Dales and Levi Sutton, while James Perch is suspended after a recent red card against Cambridge.

Stags’ boss John Dempster says he is ‘determined’ to bring success to Mansfield Town and add to his achievements as a player and academy chief at One Call Stadium.

“I’ve never been more determined to bring success to this football club,” said the boss. “It’s a club I’m passionate about and one I have a strong allegiance with.

“I’ve given seven years’ service to the club. Believe me when I say that I’ll be giving everything to this football club like I always have done.

“I’ve learned that we set high standards and when we fall short of that, we have to be honest with ourselves.

“We went away to Exeter and were beaten by a disappointing goal – one goal. I think we were coming back into the game before the [Ryan Sweeney] red card happened, but I don’t want to paper over the cracks.

“I’m determined to make this a successful campaign. This will be a successful campaign and the players will produce the goods.”

Manager Paul Hurst is optimistic skipper Andy Butler will be available for selection when the Iron visit Mansfield Town on Saturday.

“He’s returned to training and seemed fine, but we’ll check that and see how he is on Friday. Otherwise, it’s almost as we were before Tuesday.

“With the exception of Joey Dawson, everyone came through it okay. As I said the other night, he injured his knee in the warm-up. We’ll find out more about him at the beginning of next week because he may end up needing to have a scan. He looked a little bit better on Thursday but won’t be involved this weekend.

“Kev (van Veen) and Ryan (Colclough) are still making their way back to full fitness. Kev was very stiff and tired as he came off on Tuesday, and was on the treatment table on Thursday, but did get out to train too.”

Head-to-head

In the last five outings, both teams have won two games with one ending in a 1-1 draw, but it has been Mansfield that had won the fixture last time out beating Scunthorpe 3-2 in the Checkatrade trophy.