Stags Stretch Wins To Five In A Row

Mansfield Town stretched their winning streak to five matches on Saturday afternoon with a comfortable, 3-0 home success, over bottom club Port Vale.

The Stags, who earlier this month reached the FA Cup Fourth Round, where they’ll travel to Premier League Burnley, have strengthened in the January transfer window, at that played dividends as they moved into tenth place.

Oliver Irow, a loan signing from Tottenham Hotspur, marked his debut when coming off the bench and firing a second half brace for Nigel Clough’s buoyant side.

He, along with Jon Russell and Victor Adeboyejo, are the latest additions to Clough’s ranks as they look to gatecrash the play-offs in the second half of the season; a goalless first half against struggling Vale was immediately spun on its head in the opening throes of the second.

Irow and Russell came on at the start of the second period, replacing Nathan Moriah-Welsh and Baily Cargill respectively, and it paid instant dividends against a side who’d had much the better of the opening forty-five.

The visitors had more of the limited opportunities the first half produced, Devante Cole striking Liam Roberts’ upright inside twenty minutes for the best of them; the Stags’ prime effort came via a Lucas Akins volley which sailed over, he connecting with a Rhys Oates cross.

The deadlock though was broken in the fifty-fifth minute as Oates, following a lovely run on goal, saw his effort saved low by Vale shot-stopper, Ben Amos, however, Irow was on-hand to put home the rebound from close range.

Minutes later and the lead was doubled, and in similar circumstance, an Oates shot parried by Amos, this time Will Evans capitalising and netting from close range also.

Less than ten minutes and the Stags had put the result out of sight, Irow grabbing his second, and the hosts’ third of the afternoon, curling home a lovely effort from the edge of the area with a little over twenty minutes remaining.

It sealed a fifth straight win for the Stags during which they’ve netted fourteen times, conceding just the five (three came against Sheffield United in the FA Cup), and pushed them into tenth in the League One table.

MANSFIELD TOWN – Liam Roberts, Deji Oshilaja, Ryan Sweeney (captain), Baily Cargill (Jon Russell, 46), Lucas Akins, Louis Reed (Regan Hendry, 86), Aaron Lewis, Stephen McLaughlin, Nathan Moriah-Welsh (Oliver Irow, 46), Rhys Oates (Luke Bolton, 76), Will Evans (Victor Adeboyejo, 76)

Meanwhile, Notts County left in late in League Two before picking up all three points in a 2-1 win away to ten-man hosts, Crawley Town.

It was Martin Paterson’s sides’ first win in five after two draws and two losses dating back to mid-December, a run that has, for its part, dampened an expected promotion push.

A goalless first half, Jodi Jones opened the scoring for the visitors within ten minutes of the restart with an angled effort, before the hosts found themselves down to ten after the dismissal of Klaidi Lolos was shown a straight red.

County added a second with nine minutes remaining through Alassana Jatta firing home a Matthew Palmer corner, Crawley pulling one back in stoppage time through Harry McKirdy’s direct free-kick.

The win for County sees them sitting seventh in the table, in the final play-off spot, four points off second place Swindon Town, in what is a tight, top portion of the table; nine points are presently separating second place Swindon, and eleventh place Grimsby Town.

Upcoming from the Mansfield and Notts to see out January is as follows, the Stags have back-to-back away trips to eighth place Stevenage (24 January), and fourteenth place Plymouth Argyle (27 January), before hosting Wycombe Wanderers (31 January) who are currently ninth, whilst the Magpies have consecutive home games with tenth place Crewe Alexandra (24 January) and second place Swindon (27 January), before hitting the road to Fleetwood (31 January) at the end of the month.

Proceedings in both League One, and League Two, can look oh so very different in two weeks’ time, as both sides look to push themselves into contention at the top of their respective divisions.