Rampant Stags make Oldham Athletic pay with a dominant victory at the One Call Stadium

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Mansfield Town were not messing about and went all guns blazing and blew Oldham to smithereens with an impressive 4-1 victory.

Nigel Clough handed 20-year-old Keaton Ward his first professional league start with the midfielder partnering Stephen Quinn.

Mansfield’s manager also gave game time to Jason Law, Jayden Charles and James Clarke with the trio featuring off the bench.

The most impressive of the youngsters in the match, Tyrese Sinclair, had an array of chances but was able to convert one of his first ones in the 12th minute to open the scoring for the hosts.

Jamie Reid was able to play a delightful ball into the path of the forward who slotted past Laurie Walker to give the amber and blues an early 1-0 lead.

Clough was bellowing to his players to attack and to drive as the Stags sent attack after attack towards the Oldham goal.

It took until the 38th minute for Mansfield to double their lead through the magic George Lapslie. A dazzling run from left-back Stephen McLaughlin saw him make his way into the box before delivering the ball into the midfielder who in turn tapped the ball into the goal.

The Stags dominated the first-half and only allowed Oldham to have two chances. The first came after a poor kick out by Aidan Stone that allowed Zak Dearnley possession of the ball, but the Stags’ shot-stopper made amends and later cleared the danger.

Oldham’s second chance came on the back of that clearance from Stone with Conor McAleny’s weak shot from outside the box not troubling the Mansfield goalkeeper.

The aforementioned Dearnley did reduce the deficit for the Latics after the only and probably most crazy mistake from Stone and defender Ryan Sweeney.

Sweeney looked to shepherd the ball out of the play but came together with the Stags’ goalkeeper and seeing the ball slip from his grasp into the path of the Oldham striker who smashed the ball into the goal to pull a goal back for the visitors.

After that, Mansfield dominated once more and Keith Curle’s men had very little to play with in terms of attacking Stone’s goal.

The biggest chance for the Latics in second-half fell to Harry Clarke. The corner was swung in and the defender was left unmarked but put his header wide of the goal.

A minute later, the amber and blues regained their two-goal advantage and it was that man Lapslie at the double.

George Maris’ fantastic delivery found Stags’ number 32 at the back post as he put it through the legs of Walker and into the back of the net to double his tally in the game and giving Mansfield a 3-1 lead.

James Clarke was able to stamp his name on the match in the 87th minute as his shot was saved by the Oldham goalkeeper and fell into the path of Jamie Reid who scored the hosts’ fourth.

The young right-back was substituted on in the 73rd minute in place of Kellan Gordon and he looked assured throughout his cameo appearance.

Proving the skill to cut the ball back and drive into the area allowed him to take the shot off in the first place and he did that tremendously well.

Mansfield Town, similarly to everyone else in the EFL, have one last weekend to try and end the season positively and back to back victories would definitely do that.

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