Mansfield Town still in the hunt for their first victory of the season as they visit Bolton Wanderers

The question is whether the Stags can pick up from where they left off against Walsall at the weekend or will they be utterly destroyed by Bolton Wanderers?

Both clubs have had a difficult start in League Two and would really want to start picking up points sooner rather than later.

Mansfield and Bolton sit near the bottom end of the table with the Stags in a much more dangerous place at the moment sitting in 22nd and two points ahead of Scunthorpe who have two games in hand.

Bolton, after financial problems last season, were relegated into the fourth tier and have made a lot of new signings which included new manager Ian Evatt and have only managed to pick up nine points from ten games which is three more than Mansfield Town.

The Stags, even without a manager, were able to pick up a point last time out in the league when they faced Walsall at the One Call Stadium.

The two clubs have had a tendency to draw games in the league and they did it again last weekend.

Nicky Maynard opened the scoring for the Stags in the 33rd minute. A George Maris corner was cleared away only as far as Georgie Lapslie. He miscued his shot, but luckily it fell to Maynrad and he tucked the ball past Luke Roberts.

Mansfield went into half-time in the driving seat. Walsall came at the Stags as soon as the whistle blew for the start of the second half.

Elijah Adebayo equalised for Walsall three minutes into the second half. George Nurse’s great low-cross found the forward as he slotted in the goal.

Close chances from Harry Charsley and Emmanuel Osadebe saw the two have great chances to get the victory for their sides, but it wasn’t meant to be and the game finished in a 1-1 draw.

The Trotters were completely blew away at the weekend by a fantastic Leyton Orient performance that saw the O’s run out as 4-0 victors.

Danny Johnson opened the scoring in the eighth minute of the game and the onslaught began from that point onwards.

Jobi McNauff doubled Orient’s lead and three minutes later Connor Wilkinson added a third as Leyton Orient ran riot.

Craig Clay set the score at 4-0 in the 57th minute of the game and an important three points for the O’s in the hunt for the Play-Offs.

The Wanderers record double the amount of shots that Orient attempted yet none of those 16 shots from Bolton were on target.

Mansfield Town caretaker manager Richard Cooper has expressed his pride for the Mansfield players after their tireless performance against Walsall this afternoon.

“I was proud of every single one of them,” he told iFollow Stags. “There was a lot of courage, commitment and we were full of desire and running. That’s exactly what I asked of them.

“I was disappointed that we didn’t get the win, but more importantly for the lads, we can play.

“We let them get on the ball and let them make their own decisions at times. There was a lot of honesty about the performance and we played some decent stuff.

“For us, we just wanted to make sure that those lads gave an absolute performance and I thought they did that.

“I thanked them [the players]for their efforts, it’s not about me. It was all about them today and I thank them for their efforts.”

Bolton Wanderers manager Ian Evatt expressed how much of a tough game this will be against the Stags and that he needs a reaction from his players following a 4-0 defeat against Leyton Orient last weekend

“It’ll be a tough game. Just because they’re manager-less doesn’t necessarily mean that’s a good thing because sometimes you get reactions from teams when that happens. They’ve got good players there’s no two ways about it – they’re big spenders in this division.

“We have to concentrate on ourselves and do what we do well. We have to start the game better for one. When we start games well this season. We’ve had good performances and good results off the back of it. We have to make sure we start the game fast, start it better than we did on Saturday and give ourselves a platform to grow into the game. Hopefully then we can get the right result.”

Last time these two teams played each other was back in the 1992/93 season as most of the last 20 years Bolton have spent it in the higher divisions of English football.

The Stags drew against Bolton 1-1 on that day Mark Seagraves was on the scoresheet for the Wanderers and Steve Wilkinson scored for the Stags. That season saw Bolton promoted to the first division and Mansfield were relegated to the third division.

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