Mansfield Town travel to Cheltenham Town in the hunt of a place in the Fourth Round of the FA Cup

The Stags face a trip to Gloucestershire as a place in the Fourth Round of the FA Cup is up for grabs as Cheltenham Town welcome Mansfield Town to the Jonny Rocks Stadium.

The Robins have had two home ties in the FA Cup and this will be their third as the amber and blues travel to Gloucestershire to go head-to-head with their League Two counterparts.

A place in the Fourth Round awaits for the winner and both of the teams have done very well up to this point to reach Round Three of the oldest cup competition in the world.

Ahead of the fixture, we’ll see how sides have gotten to this point of the competition and the journey they have made so far starting with the home side for this fixture.

Cheltenham Town’s journey to the Third Round of the FA Cup

Round One

In the first round, the Robins faced the Mariners. No not Grimsby Town but South Shields FC as the step seven side travelled 260 miles down to the south all the way to Gloucestershire and to the Jonny Rocks Stadium.

It was the first time for the Northern Premier Division side to reach the first round proper of the competition and was a big occasion for their fans at home, the team, and certainly the managers, Lee Picton and Graham Fenton.

The match was a thriller from the word go as South Shields gave it a good old go as they had nothing to lose and were hunting for a potential cup upset against the side three levels above them in the footballing pyramid.

Alfie May gave the home side the lead after 12 minutes as Cheltenham, as the home side, looked to get a foothold in the match and simply put it beyond the lower league opposition.

Shock came not long after as Darius Osei put the Mariners back in the game and set the game up for an exciting 70 minutes.

Second-half strikes from May and Liam Sercombe saw the Robins run out as 3-1 victors and deservedly won the game after having 20+ shots and beating the step seven opponents. Credit has to go to South Shields as they gave it a go and scored a goal in the end that rattled Cheltenham ever so slightly.

Round Two

Another FA Cup game and another home tie for the Robins as this time they faced League One opposition in Crewe Alexandra.

Similarly to Round One, the game started off very quickly for the home side when they took a quick lead at the start of the match.

Two minutes it took Cheltenham to take the lead as Finn Azaz put the League Two underdogs into a rapid lead and gave them the perfect start they were looking for.

It took Crewe over an hour to respond with an equaliser but they got there in the end. Chris Porter scored for the League One side as the striker looked to get his team into the hat for the Third Round of the FA Cup.

The game would go to extra-time and the game was settled four minutes into the first half of extra-time. Liam Sercombe’s pass found George Lloyd with the striker getting the goal his team needed in the time they needed the forward the most.

That goal would settle the match as underdogs Cheltenham would make it through knocking out League One opposition and booking their place in the Third Round of the FA Cup for the first time since 1997/98.

Mansfield Town’s journey to the Third Round of the FA Cup

Round One

After a horror start to the season that saw the Stags without a single league win in League Two saw the sacking of Graham Coughlan and the introduction of caretaker manager Richard Cooper.

Cooper took charge of his first league game as the Stags travelled to Bolton and they were unlucky not to get all three points as Antoni Sarcevic scored a last-minute equaliser which split the points between the Wanderers and Mansfield.

The First Round draw gave the Stags an exciting trip to the Stadium of Light as the Nottinghamshire team were drawn against the ex-Premier League side.

Danny Graham had a few chances to score and put the Black Cats into a 2-0 lead which would have more than certainly put Sunderland in the Second Round draw but, his efforts would hit the post on both occasions.

The breakthrough would come in the second half, Harry Charsley laid the ball off to Kellan Gordon who steadied himself and delivered an inch-perfect cross onto George Lapslie’s head with the midfielder finding the back of the net.

That was the only goal of the game as Lapslie’s 49th-minute header secured Mansfield’s place in the Second Round draw as they knocked out the two-time FA Cup winners.

Round Two

Mansfield, now under Nigel Clough, faced National League side Dagenham & Redbridge in the Second Round at the One Call Stadium as the Stags looked to make it through to Round Three.

Paul McCallum gave Dagenham the lead in the 19th minute. The forward ran inside the box and finished very well from a tight angle beating Marek Stech at his far post.

Six minutes later, the amber and blues were level after Harry Charsley’s cultured finish. The midfielder received the ball from Jordan Bowery and slotted the ball past Elliot Justham and into the back of the net.

The Stags piled on chance after chance with none of them able to find the goal. Ollie Clarke’s curling effort was denied by Justham, same with Reid after the forward stung the hands of the Dagenham goalkeeper on few occasions.

The game went all the way to extra-time and penalties were looming as the scores were still level going into added time at the end of the second half of extra-time but, Nicky Maynard squeezed the ball into the back of the net after chaos in the penalty box saw the forward tap the ball past the Dagenham defence and into the goal to place the Stags in the Third Round draw.

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