Mansfield Town 1-0 Carlisle United (EFL League Two) 07.12.21

Mansfield Town are up to eleventh in the League Two table after a 1-0 victory over struggling Carlisle United at Field Mill last night.

An early Stephen McLaughlin headed strike was enough to separate the two sides in cold and blustery conditions as the Stags made it eight wins in nine games in all competitions.

It took just six minutes when Irishman, McLaughlin, guided home a header from Elliott Hewitt’s cross and although Mansfield failed to build on their slender lead during the remaining 84 minutes of the match, maximum points at the final whistle now means that Nigel Clough’s side are currently just five points below the playoff places.

Jordan Bowery went close in the first half to doubling the Stags advantage before Nathan Bishop denied the visitors a leveller, tipping a goal ward header on to the crossbar.

The Stags goalkeeper on loan from Manchester United had a relatively quiet second half but was beaten in the final minutes during injury time as Carlisle spurned their best chance to take something out of the match.

In added time a superb strike by Jordan Gibson rattled the bar and was inches away from spoiling a good night’s work for the home side.

After the match, Manager Clough stated the keenly fought victory was “unbelievably hard earned” saying “I thought we started the game very well for the first 30 minutes.”

“I think we ran out of energy and they got back into the game ten minutes before half-time and continued that in the second-half.”

“Although we had a couple of situations it was more about looking after our clean sheet and protecting that 1-0 lead.”

“Apart from them hitting the bar from 25 yards with an unbelievably good effort, I thought we did it exceptionally well on low energy levels tonight.”

Next up for Mansfield is the hosting of Salford City on Saturday afternoon, the Lancastrians are currently just two places and two points below the Stags but play their game in hand tonight at Barrow before heading across the Pennines to the One Call Stadium at the weekend.

Mansfield Town: Bishop, Hewitt, O’Toole, Forrester (Rawson 57), McLaughlin, Charsley, Maris (Sinclair 86), Stirk, Lapslie, Quinn, Bowery.

Carlisle United: Howard, Whelan, McDonald, Feeney, Armer, Gibson, Guy (Mellor 64), Mellish, Dickenson, Young (Devine 78), Abrahams (Fishburn 64).

Venue: Field Mill (3,695)

*Main image @mansfieldtownfc Stephen McLaughlin celebrates his early winner with Stephen Quinn.