Mansfield Town 0-3 Lincoln City (EFL League One) 18.02,25

Mansfield Town’s recent League One misery continues with a seventh defeat in eight at home to Lincoln City last night.

The Stags had picked up their first point since beating Stockport on January 4th at Blackpool on Saturday in an entertaining 3-3 draw at Bloomfield Road but at home against Lincoln City it was one way traffic as the away side strolled to victory.

Lincoln had already spurned two good opportunities to take the lead before registering their first goal of the night on nine minutes, a corner played in by Tom Bayliss headed home by the unmarked Paudie O’Connor, it was all too easy for the Imps.

Mansfield never really troubled the opposition goal other than an early shot blocked by McLoughlin prior to Lincoln taking the lead, the best attempt mustered was Louis Reed blazing over from outside the box in the second half, before another set play caused Mansfield mayhem, Sam Clucas curling a corner straight into the back of the net on 83 for number two.

There was time for another on 89 as Dom Jefferies wriggled into the box after Lincoln breaked from a Stags attacking throw-in, a third goal conceded for the third time in a row, Nigel Clough saying after “the scoreline was a little bit harsh on us” but he did state “I don’t think we were aggressive, nasty or clinical enough in certain situations”.

Clough followed “I think we played very well for an hour tonight, especially in the first half, I thought the standard of our football like at Blackpool on Saturday was very good, we didn’t have the same impact in the second half although the lads kept plugging away, the second goal knocked the stuffing out of us”.

Mansfield are fifteenth in the table and face a tough task against promotion chasing Wrexham on Saturday, the Welsh team currently third in the league also lost last night against Leyton Orient.

Stags: Pym, Williams (Bowery 46), Hewitt, Blake-Tracy (Quinn 56), Akins, Baccus (Lewis 73), Reed, Maris, McLaughlin, Evans, Vickers (Rhodes 73).

*Main image @mansfieldtownfc Stephen McLaughlin went close with an early strike before Lincoln scored.