Mansfield Town aim to build momentum as they face Colchester United at home

Mansfield Town host Colchester United at the One Call Stadium with both sides looking to get back-to-back wins.

Mansfield Town go into this game on the back of an impressive away win against Walsall. Strikes from former Walsall and now Stags striker Andy Cook and midfielder Alex MacDonald secured the three points for the amber and blues.

Colchester have played two games in the last seven days. Last Saturday they beat Newport County 3-1 and on Tuesday they beat Crawley Town to reach the Carabao Cup quarter-finals where they will face Manchester United at home. These wins could come pivotal in this tie and may give the U’s an edge in this fixture.

Team news

Jacob Mellis is back in contention after returning to training this week.

The game will likely come too soon for captain Krystian Pearce and wing-back Hayden White.

Strikers Danny Rose, Craig Davies and Jordan Graham are also expected to miss out.

The U’s could also be missing firepower as top scorer Luke Norris is a doubt due to an injury obtained earlier this week.

Fellow frontman Theo Robinson will not feature due to an ongoing three-match suspension.

After a ‘positive’ run of results in October, Stags’ boss John Dempster says that focus must now switch to solidifying Mansfield’s home form:

“They’re one of the better teams I’ve seen this season and have an experienced manager [John McGreal] who has had a number of years to put the team together and get them playing the way he wants to.

“A positive result on Saturday would be back-to-back wins and the team would be going into the FA Cup clash with Chorley in a very positive mindset. Our home form hasn’t been good enough. We’ve had some unfortunate results and other times we’ve under-performed.

“The support on Saturday [at Walsall]gave us another gear. I’ve seen a real shift in energy at home as well – the general shouts towards the players are a lot more positive than they were in the early parts of the season.

“I know that when the home crowd are with the team, it makes a real difference.”

Head Coach John McGreal is expecting a tough test from the Nottinghamshire side, who have been in and amongst the front runners in recent years:

“It’s always a tough place to go, and they’ve got an experienced squad that will be difficult to beat. That will be the aim though, because we want to build on our recent form and the four points out of six that we picked up at Crewe and against Newport in our last two league fixtures.

“They have been promotion contenders for the past two or three seasons, but like us, have just missed out.

“I’m expecting them to be there or thereabouts again, so we must be fully focused to get anything out of the game Saturday.”

Head-to-head

In the last five fixtures between the two clubs, Colchester have the edge, beating the Stags on two occasions. The game has ended in a draw twice with Mansfield winning the most recent game 3-2 after being down 2-0.