Stags look to continue strong home form as they take on Gary Bowyer’s improving Salford City

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Mansfield Town have the chance to make it five successive home victories but the resurgent Ammies will not make reaching that target easy for the amber and blues.

The Stags have played some great football in recent weeks picking up win after win, but when they needed to do the dirty work, Nigel Clough’s men rose to the task and did this exactly in their latest win against Carlisle United on Tuesday evening.

Elliott Hewitt’s pinpoint cross found Stephen McLaughlin at the back post as the left-back nodded the ball past Mark Howard to give the amber and blues a 1-0 lead in the sixth minute.

From that point onwards, Carlisle slowly started to grow into the game as the Mansfield defence started to make mistakes at the back.

Misplaced passes, not being alert to the ball, slipping and general sloppiness could have cost the Stags dearly but they were able to hold onto their slim lead at the half-time interval.

The Cumbrians started pressing and carving out chances even more with 20 minutes to go. Brennan Dickenson’s curling corner had to be cleared off the line by Hewitt, Kelvin Mellor’s goalbound effort was blocked by the amber and blue wall, and the most dangerous opportunity from Jordan Gibson cannoned back into play off the crossbar.

Clough’s Stags were able to hold onto their one-goal advantage for the whole 90 minutes as they recorded another league victory that moved them up to 11th in League Two.

The amber and blues’ opponents this weekend, Salford City, had their midweek encounter against Barrow postponed due to a waterlogged pitch at Holker Steet.

Gary Bowyer’s side were knocked out of the FA Cup in their last competitive outing. National League leaders Chesterfield travelled to the Pennisula Stadium and made their chances count as they ran out 2-0 victors.

Even though the hosts had 20 shots, they failed to score and it was a Liam Mandeville wonderstrike that opened the scoring for the Spireites in the 28th minute. The forward received the ball outside the box and released a shot that cannoned off the underside of the crossbar before hitting the back of the net to give the non-league side the advantage.

The Derbyshire club doubled their lead in the dying embers of the game. Kabongo Tshimanga off-loaded the ball onto James Kellerman who smashed the ball into the roof of the net and sent Chesterfield into the Thrid Round of the FA Cup.

You can’t discredit the Ammies however as they had numerous chances to score a goal or two through the tie but fell just short.

Salford have also been on resurgent form with the Greater Manchester club now unbeaten in four league outings and sit 15th on 24 points, two points behind the Stags who sit on 26 points after 20 games.

In the last encounter between Mansfield and Salford, the Ammies ran out 2-0 victors in a game that was overshadowed by Ferrend Rawson’s horrific injury.

Two goals in either half for the hosts saw them pick up the win and a valuable three points as they looked to claim a play-off spot. However, they failed to do so and missed out on a top seven place by two points.

The Stags don’t have a brilliant record against Salford, winning once and losing twice, but they’ll be looking to continue their run of form going. However, it won’t be an easy task against a solid and rested Ammies side who will look to keep their own unbeaten intact.

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