Mansfield Town aim to bounce back when they face Newport County at the One Call Stadium

Mansfield Town are in desperate need of a good run of results as they are only ten points clear of 24th Stevenage and try to avoid relegation.

Last time out, the Stags were beaten 2-1 away at Leyton Orient. After Kelland Watts scored his first Mansfield goal to equalise in the second-half, an inadvertent Mal Benning own goal gave Orient the win.

Newport have won two of their last five matches, and drew 0-0 with Walsall at home last time out on Tuesday evening.

Team news

The game will likely come too soon for midfielder Alex MacDonald, who has a hamstring problem, while defender Kellan Gordon (back) will miss out.

After completing 45 minutes for Stags’ reserves on Tuesday, wing-back Hayden White will continue to be assessed ahead of Saturday’s fixture.

For the Exiles, Otis Khan is ineligible to feature on Saturday, as the midfielder is currently on loan from the Stags.

Mansfield Town manager Graham Coughlan delivered his post-match verdict following a 2-1 defeat away at Leyton Orient:

“It obviously wasn’t good enough,” he told iFollow Stags. “We’re vulnerable and the goals we’re conceding are soft. The errors we’re making are killing us and the decision making is poor.

“We’re shooting ourselves in the foot once too often. [We’re making] basic errors, mistakes and we’re massively lacking in confidence.

“They’re not in a great place, the players. It’s hurting us, to be honest. We made too many errors on our behalf – if we do our jobs correctly, we don’t concede.

“When you make simple, basic errors, you’re going to get punished – and we are getting punished.

“We’re conceding all sorts of goals. It’s killing us but all the lads can do is keep working. You can’t do anything other than that.”

Newport County manager Michael Flynn was happy with the performance against Walsall, but regrets more missed chances in front of goal to take all three points:

“I thought we were by far the better team on the night, we just didn’t take any chances.

“I think it’s a bit of everything at the moment, a bit of misfortune, choosing the wrong options, not anticipating things. I asked them for a reaction today and I got that.”

“Leicester U21s for a lot of the game was good. Tonight was good, we’ve only had one really bad performance (Cambridge). You see them out there, they work their socks off, they were trying.

“At times I thought they tried a bit too hard, as in getting a bit giddy in front of goal and being too eager to attack. I’m pleased with the players.”

Head-to-head

Last time the sides met was on the opening day of the season, in a frantic affair that ended 2-2. The hosts found themselves two goals up at the break, but found themselves level pegging with Mansfield at full-time after goals from Krystian Pearce and Danny Rose.

The Stags finished the game with ten men after a straight red card to midfielder Jacob Mellis.