Scunthorpe United 1-2 Mansfield Town (EFL Trophy Group E) 10.11.20

After watching his new side upset Sunderland from the stands on Saturday it was a winning start for Nigel Clough in the dugout last night as an experimental Stags XI beat Scunthorpe in the EFL Trophy.

Eleven changes in all were made to the side that won in the FA Cup as Clough used the match at Glanford Park as an opportunity to look at a number of his players ahead of Saturday’s important league match with Forest Green Rovers.

Both Mansfield and Scunthorpe were already out, languished fourth and third respectively behind Manchester City U21’s and Lincoln City ahead of kick off so the result was all about getting kudos and avoiding the small object of nothing more than tag of ‘wooden spoon’.

The Stags avoided it too, a positive performance from the get go inspired by a new man in the dugout barking orders, Mansfield took the lead on 34 minutes after a scare when van Veen’s earlier free kick hit the upside of the bar before a corner resulted in Ryan Sweeney heading home from close range via a deflection.

That lead was almost doubled when O’Driscoll tried his luck from range only to smash against the bar after good work by Sinclair but it mattered not as a minute before half time Cook crossed in a teasing ball which was only partially cleared for Reid to whack home on the volley.

Mansfield continued to press forward in the second half with Tyrese Sinclair in particular looking dangerous but with twelve minutes left the home side replied with a stunning effort as Olomola let fly from all of twenty-five yards to reduce the deficit.

Stone was called into action late on as the goalkeeper denied Onariase from close range before Cook fired wide at the other end in stoppage time an opportunity that would have provided the icing on the cake.

For Clough, a second win under his tenure and plenty of food for thought now having seen a large proportion of his squad in match day action, for him a nice headache to have ahead of Saturday is to pick the right players from two winning teams that can do the job to get three points.

After the game the Manager said “Generally, I was very pleased. There was a mix of the younger players and the senior ones – you ask them to go and give everything to try and win, and they did that.”

“Hopefully you can sense the players’ spirits lifting a bit as they grow in confidence, and really want to take it on from here.”

Scunthorpe United: Watson, Rowe (Hornshaw 81), Onariase, Cordner, O’Malley, Dales, Pugh, Beestin, Hippolyte, van Veen (Hallam 46), Loft (Olomola 65).

Mansfield Town: Stone, Clarke (Smith 73), Menayese, Sweeney, O’Keefe, Sinclair (Gordon 87), O’Driscoll, Smith, Law, Cook, Reid (Caine 88).

Venue: Glanford Park

*Main image @mansfieldtownfc skipper Ryan Sweney gives Stags the lead.