Mansfield Town travel to Shrewsbury in the second round of the FA Cup

Next up for the Stags is an Emirates FA Cup second round clash with League One side Shrewsbury Town at the Montgomery Waters Meadow.

The Stags come into the game off-the-back of a 1-0 defeat to Sky Bet League Two leaders Swindon Town. They progressed to the Emirates FA Cup second round with victory over Chorley.

Shrewsbury were also beaten on their most recent outing, losing 4-3 to Bristol Rovers. They made it to this stage of the FA Cup following a 1-0 win against Bradford City in a replay.

Team news

Midfielder Neal Bishop could be in contention having returned to training earlier this week following tonsillitis and a back issue.

Both Danny Rose (hamstring) and Hayden White (leg) will not feature due to injury although the latter is just a week away from a return to the training pitch.

Frontman Craig Davies will also miss out as he continues to feature for the reserves ahead of an anticipated return to the first team in the next few weeks.

Sam Ricketts previews Town’s second-round FA Cup tie with Mansfield Town.

“They are a decent side with some good players,” said the Town manager. They were really unlucky last year missing out in the play-offs. They have some good players, players who won that league last year.

“It will be a tough test but it’s a test we are looking forward to. We all know it won’t be easy. We can’t have it where we always go to teams in the above leagues. We expect a real tough battle coming the other way.

“We have to really respect Mansfield and their threats whilst we try to impose ourselves and ultimately win the game. We prepare the exact same way, it doesn’t matter who we are playing – we will make sure we are ready.

“We have a routine of how we prepare for games and that will continue for every game that we do play. Nicky Maynard is someone we need to be wary of, alongside some other players.”

Stags’ boss John Dempster has previewed Mansfield’s upcoming Emirates FA Cup Second Round clash and has challenged his players to ‘cause an upset’ in Shropshire:

“I’d have liked a league fixture straight after we performed at Swindon and I think the players feel the same,” he told iFollow Stags.

“That said, we can’t control the fixture list and we’ll always look forward to an FA Cup fixture as it’s something that the club has always taken seriously.

“We have a tough challenge ahead of us as we’re going to a League One side. But it was only a week or so ago when we went to a League One side [Burton] in the other competition [Leasing.com Trophy] and progressed in that. We’ll be looking to do the same on Saturday.”

Head-to-head

In the last five outings between the two sides, Shrewsbury have the upper hand as they have beaten Mansfield twice but with their last victory over the Stags in 2015. This exact encounter has finished in a level twice and Mansfield won one game.