Mansfield Town aim to finish the season on a high note when they host Oldham Athletic

The Stags play their final home league match this weekend with Nigel Clough’s men looking to get back to winning ways against Keith Curle’s Oldham Athletic.

The amber and blues have not had the best of seasons and this campaign will again go down as one to forget.

Clough’s main target, survival, has been achieved with the Nottinghamshire club able to secure that against Scunthorpe United last Tuesday evening.

A home win at the One Call Stadium will definitely be on the Stags’ minds after the horrific incident and dismal result against Salford City last time out.

Ashley Hunter gave the Ammies an early lead after five minutes. Robbie Gotts fired the ball into the forward as he slotted the ball past Aidan Stone to give his side the lead.

The Stags looked for an equaliser but were unable to find their shooting boots as a mixture of missed chances and not having a clinical edge that afternoon cost Clough’s men.

Salford were able to get a second in the 62nd minute. Ian Henderson made it 2-0 for the Ammies with a fantastic acrobatic volley which beat Stone and gave the hosts a two-goal advantage which they held onto for the rest of the match and took all three points from the fixture.

The result and the match as a whole was overshadowed by one incident that happened near the end of the match. Mansfield Town’s substitute goalkeeper Jamie Pardington and centre-back Ferrand Rawson collided with each other which saw the defender lie on the floor for about 15 minutes.

Rawson was given oxygen and placed on a stretcher before later being transferred to hospital with the resulting break seeing the game have a prolonged period of added time.

Nigel Clough after the match confirmed that the defender was awake and had been knocked unconscious on the pitch.

“He [Rawson] is awake now – he wasn’t at the time Tom [Whittamore, head physio] got onto the pitch, as he’d been knocked unconscious,” Nigel Clough told the club media.

“Hopefully he’ll be okay – he didn’t remember too much about the incident, which is pretty normal I think in those sorts of injuries.

“But it’s good that he’s awake and fingers crossed he’s okay. He didn’t see the goalkeeper [Pardington].”

Oldham Athletic, Mansfield’s opponents this weekend, were also on the receiving end of a defeat against Grimsby Town, who are looking to stay alive and avoid the drop.

Keith Curle’s men gained the lead on the half-hour mark. Conor McAleny gave the hosts the lead as they looked to get back-to-back victories for the first time since the start of April.

Six minutes later and it was all level. Ex-Stag Matt Green levelled the game up at 1-1 with the Mariners still alive in the EFL at that point.

In the second-half, the game was very quiet until the 80th minute. Jay Matete’s goal secured a vital victory for Grimsby as they are six points from safety with three games to go.

Mansfield Town were victorious in the reverse fixture against Oldham in a five-goal thriller at Boundary Park. Alfie McCalmont’s goal early on gave the hosts the lead after six minutes, but a rapid double from Harry Charsley and Ryan Sweeney saw the Stags leading 2-1 at the half-time interval.

Four minutes into the second period, Jamie Reid added a third goal for the amber and blues with a smart strikers finish to give the visitors a two-goal cushion.

McAleny gave Clough’s men a bit of a scare with six minutes of the match to go but the Stags were able to hold on and run out 3-2 victors.

In the last five meetings between the two sides at the One Call Stadium, Mansfield have only lost once with that match being in the FA Cup all the way back in December 2013 with the Latics 4-1 victors that day.

The Stags have scored nine goals against Oldham the last five times these two sides met in Nottinghamshire with the Greater Manchester club able to only score five in reply.

Clough will be hoping his side can end their home season on a positive note but it won’t be easy as Curle’s men are also looking to get back to winning ways after a disappointing loss to Grimsby.

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