Will Jamie Reid get a chance to shine against his former club Exeter City?

Mansfield Town host last season’s play-off finalists Exeter City at the One Call Stadium, but one thing that may be on Stags supporters’ minds is whether ex-Exeter City man Jamie Reid will be in the starting 11 against his former team.

The amber and blues have been given the all-clear for their League Two encounter against Exeter City to go ahead this weekend after players and staff were tested negative for Covid-19. This came after the announcement that 17 Leyton Orient players tested positive for the virus days after they played the Stags at Brisbane Road.

The fixture between Orient and Mansfield ended in a 2-2 draw, but it could have been a lot better for the Stags if only for their sloppy game management late in the game.

Jordan Bowery opened the scoring for the Stags in the 52nd minute of the game. Andy Cook was brought down in the penalty area by James Brophy as Bowery slotted the resulting penalty in the top right corner of Lawrence Vigoroux’s goal.

20 minutes later, Andy Cook doubled the lead for Mansfield after a cultured poachers finish into the Leyton Orient goal which put the amber and blues in a commanding position.

Within 20 minutes of the Andy Cook goal, Danny Johnson and Reul Sotiriou scored goals to secure Orient a valuable point and to send Mansfield packing with one point, not three.

Exeter City have not had the brightest of starts in League Two which for a play-off finalist should be doing a bit better after a good season in the previous campaign. After a 2-2 draw against Salford on matchday one, the Grecians were beaten by Port Vale. Goals from Tom Conlon and Devante Rodney saw Vale steal all the points away from Exeter.

The possession game did not really work out for Exeter as they gained 62% possession from the game. 11 shots with only three of those shots on target, compared to Port Vale’s seven shots and two on target, resulted in goals and Vale taking the points back to Stoke.

Jamie Reid used to play for Exeter City and this would be the perfect opportunity for the Northern Irish man to prove a point and potentially start his goalscoring run.

In both games that Mansfield have had in League Two, Graham Coughlan has opted for Andy Cook and Jordan Bowery instead of the lethal pair of Nicky Maynard and Jamie Reid.

Reid scored 18 league goals for Torquay United in the National League as they finished mid-table in the 2019/20 campaign.

He is a proven goalscorer in the lower leagues and provided a lot of goals for the now National League outfit as they won the National League South title in the 2018/19 season with 29 goals in the league as the team scored a combined total of 93 goals.

Team News

The only injury to report on from both teams is for the Stags as they will be without defender Joe Riley, who is continuing his recovery from an ACL injury and is unlikely to feature any time soon.

Head-to-Head

Since being in League Two again, the Stags have not beaten Exeter at the One Call Stadium with the amber and blues being beaten on four occasions and drawing the game against the Grecians three times.

The most recent game between the two clubs was last season at St James’ Park as Ryan Bowman scored for Exeter in the fifth minute which set the match and guaranteed the win for the Devonshite team.