Mansfield Town look to carry on winning run when they face Forest Green

The Stags will look to make it three wins out of three against Forest Green as they travel to the New Lawn on Saturday.

Mansfield go into this game having beaten nine-man Oldham 6-1 at home last time out. A first-half hat-trick from Nicky Maynard put the Stags into a comfortable lead. In the second half goals from Mal Benning, Dapo Afolayan and Jimmy Knowles secured a statement win for Mansfield.

Team news

Defender Ryan Sweeney picked up his fifth caution of the season in Saturday’s 6-1 win over Oldham, meaning he will miss the trip to The New Lawn.

Wing-back Hayden White is also suspended after being sent off in the Stags’ recent 1-0 win at Grimsby.

Despite the two absentees in Mansfield’s back-line for this weekend’s match, centre-back Matt Preston is available for selection once more after serving his four-match suspension after a red card at Cambridge earlier in the campaign.

The game will come too soon for frontman Craig Davies, who is nearing a return to training with the Mansfield squad after a lengthy spell on the sidelines with to an ankle injury.

Midfielder Jacob Mellis and striker Danny Rose will continue to be assessed ahead of the game.

Forest Green goalkeeper Lewis Thomas is fit despite being substituted midway through last week’s defeat at Exeter.

Defender Liam Shephard is also fit to return but Matt Mills is ruled out once again as he struggles to overcome a hamstring problem.

Dayle Grubb, Nathan McGinley, Kevin Dawson and George Williams are also still absent as Cooper’s side look to get their promotion push back on track.

Forest Green manager Mark Cooper spoke about the present injury crisis ahead of the fixture.

“Before the Exeter game we were really good, because Crawley was our last game. Before this game coming up, we are only as good as the Exeter game and we were really poor. Sometimes that happens and you have to give credit to the opposition.”

“Lewis (Thomas) is ok, it was more of a precaution (bringing him off against Exeter) than anything else.”

“Hopefully, over the next couple of weeks, we’ll see an end to our injuries. We’ve got Shephard back this week, I think we’ll have McGinley fit for Tuesday and then it is just really Matt Mills and Dawson, who are two or three weeks, and then Dayle Grubb will be longer.”

Stags’ boss John Dempster said that Saturday’s ‘outstanding’ 6-1 win over Oldham Athletic has instilled ‘more belief and confidence’ into his squad, with the victory earning the amber and blue back-to-back wins for the first time this season.

“The performance was outstanding on Saturday [against Oldham],” he began. “It was vitally important to get a result because we wanted to put back-to-back wins together.

“From start to finish, we dominated. The goals we scored were brilliant to watch for everyone that was there.

“It’s crucial at League Two level [to get back-to-back wins]. We’ll be looking for more back-to-back wins over the remainder of the campaign.

“We want to be a force, in particular at home. We’re yet to set the world alight at home this season, but Saturday was the start of us going in the right direction.

“There have been times this season where we’ve had to pick players up early on in the week because we’ve had a disappointing result.”

Head-to-head

In the last six encounters between the two clubs, it is a very even with Forest Green winning two, Mansfield winning two and with the clubs drawing twice.