Mansfield Town return to the One Call Stadium as they welcome Chris Beech’s Carlisle United

Constant inability to hold onto points has cost the Mansfield Town in recent weeks. A home match against Carlisle is in store as both side look to move up the League Two table.

Nigel Clough’s men have found it hard to hold onto points and their recent inconsistency has shown when losing valuable points in the final moments of matches.

A late goal against Colchester saw the amber and blues miss out on a valuable three points at the Colchester Community Stadium. Three late goals against Bolton meant the Stags lost out on three points which they looked to be cruising to after 75 minutes.

The same thing happened again as Clough’s men travelled to Crawley. Back-to-back wins were on the horizon after an impressive 3-1 victory against Cheltenham last Tuesday.

The Stags and the Red Devils battled closely and ultimately had very little that split the two sides after the first-half. Jamie Reid for Mansfield and Tom Nichols for Crawley both had very good chances to tip the game in their sides’ favour.

Substitute James Tilley scored in added time of the second-half to gift the victory for the Red Devils in the dying moments of the match.

A long throw-in saw Tilley pounce on the loose ball and fired the ball at the near post with the ball beating Marek Stech and ending in the back of the net to take away more points that Mansfield need as they try to move up the League Two table.

Mansfield opponents this time round, Carlisle United, were victorious at the weekend with a well-earned victory over the flying Bradford City.

Rhys Bennett gave the home side the lead after 37 minutes. The ex-Stag nodded the ball into the back of the net as he rose highest after a corner was played into the box and was on target to give the Cumbrians the lead.

Another corner only two minutes later saw Chris Beech’s side take a two-goal lead. After a scramble in the box from the set-piece, Offrande Zanzala bundled the ball into the goal as Carlisle took a healthy 2-0 lead into the half-time interval.

10 minutes into the second-half, the forward was found once more to score his second of the match with an intelligent header which beat Bradford goalkeeper Sam Hornby and put the game beyond the Bantams.

Paudie O’Connor was able to score for the visitors in the 64th minute which his deflected effort wrong-footing Paul Farman, but ultimately Mark Trueman and Conor Sellars’ side were unable to build on the goal and fell to a 3-1 defeat.

The victory was valuable for Carlisle, who fell all the way down the league after topping the table at one stage of the season.

This puts them in good stead as the Stags failed to get anything out of their match against Crawley last weekend, but will be looking to get back to winning ways once more.

The fixture is a rearranged match after the Cumbrians were struck down with a Covid-19 outbreak back in January and had to postpone three of their league fixtures.

Since the formation of League Two, Carlisle have failed to win at the One Call Stadium. In their last eight attempts, they have forced three draws with the Stags victorious on five occasions.

Mansfield will be hoping to avoid disappointment and come out of this match with a victory and three points to carry on their quest to the 50 point mark.

Beech’s men will want a victory more than anything after having such a fantastic start to the campaign which has seen them fall away from the top pack recently.

It will most definitely be a great League Two encounter with plenty to play for and either side could come out victorious due to the sheer unpredictability of the fourth tier of English football.

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