Preview: Stags vs Newport County AFC

13 August 2021

The Stags return to Sky Bet League Two action on Saturday, when they go in search of back-to-back league wins at home to Newport County AFC. Here's all you need to know...

Please read these special notices, which include COVID-19 safety guidelines, before attending Saturday's match at One Call Stadium:

Proof of a negative test or double vaccination is not required for Saturday's game
Please do not attend the match if you’re experiencing symptoms of COVID-19
Sanitiser will be available throughout the stadium
All of our staff will be wearing masks for their own safety but also the safety of our supporters
We encourage mask wearing whilst not seated
Please respect others by keeping a safe distance especially within toilet areas, queuing and on the concourse
Kiosks will be open, along with Sandy's Bar & Kitchen and the fans' zone (both from 12noon)
Please arrive in plenty of time ahead of kick-off
We ask our supporters to refrain from asking players/management for photographs/autographs

Defender Elliott Hewitt and midfielder Harry Charsley will both be assessed in the days leading up to the game following recent thigh problems.

Matt Dolan, who was forced off with injury in Newport County's opening day win over Oldham, is the only doubt in Michael Flynn's side.

The Stags won their opening game of the season in dramatic fashion. Heading towards what looked a certain 1-1 draw, a 95th minute penalty, scored by striker Danny Johnson, secured all three points.

Nigel Clough's side performed well for large parts of Tuesday night's Carabao Cup clash at home to Sky Bet Championship side Preston North End, but ruthless finishing saw the visitors progress to the next round.

Saturday's opponents began their campaign with a 1-0 win on the road, with the experienced Kevin Ellison scoring a late goal against Oldham Athletic.

Despite making 11 changes for their Carabao Cup match away at Ipswich on Tuesday, Newport produced an impressive result, winning 1-0 for the second game running.

We last faced the Exiles in April of this year, a 1-1 draw at One Call Stadium.

The visitors took the lead, but Tyrese Sinclair's first goal for the club earned the Stags a point.

The referee for Saturday's game will be Anthony Backhouse, assisted by Wayne Grunnill and Bradley Hall. The fourth official will be Garreth Rhodes.

Mr. Backhouse last took charge of a Mansfield game for our 2-0 defeat away at Salford City at the end of April.

Listed below is the club's general match ticket admission prices for home league games in 2021/22.

This includes family tickets, which allow one adult and one child to watch the game from Blocks A and B of the Quarry Lane end.

MATCHDAY TICKET PRICES

The prices for purchasing tickets in advance of league games (before matchday) at One Call Stadium are as follows.

Category	Ian Greaves Lower	Ian Greaves Upper	Quarry Lane End
Adults	£23.00	£24.00	£23.00
Seniors (65+)	£20.00	£21.00	£20.00
Young Adults (18-21)	£17.00	£18.00	£17.00
Juniors (7-17)	£14.00	£15.00	£14.00
Under-7	FREE	FREE	FREE
Family Ticket	Not Available	Not Available	£25.00 (QLE home only)

The following table lists general admission prices when purchasing tickets on matchday at One Call Stadium.

Category	Ian Greaves Lower	Ian Greaves Upper	Quarry Lane End
Adults	£25.00	£26.00	£25.00
Seniors (65+)	£22.00	£23.00	£22.00
Young Adults (18-21)	£19.00	£20.00	£19.00
Juniors (7-17)	£16.00	£17.00	£16.00
Under-7	FREE	FREE	FREE
Family Ticket	Not Available	Not Available	£25.00 (QLE home only)

Tickets for the match are available to purchase online via www.stagstickets.co.uk, at the ticket office on Quarry Lane, or by calling the ticket office on 01623 482 482.

Supporters who have purchased tickets via stagstickets.co.uk and selected the 'print at home' option can now use their mobile ticket received via email to access One Call Stadium. Just download your ticket via email after selecting 'print at home' and scan the barcode on your mobile ticket using the scanners at the turnstiles.

Matchday prices do not apply to supporters who purchase tickets online. You can therefore make a saving by purchasing tickets on matchday via www.stagstickets.co.uk

All pre-purchased tickets will be available to collect from the 'Collections Only' window at our ticket office booth on matchdays from 12noon. Prior to this, tickets will be available to collect from the main ticket office from 10am.

You can find the booth next to the club shop on Quarry Lane. No tickets can be purchased from this window on matchday, although tickets can be purchased from other windows at the ticket booth.

Disabled supporters should view our disabled supporters' section for revelant matchday ticket information.

Supporters can also purchase tickets on the day of the game. The matchday ticket office will be open for fans to buy tickets from 10am until 3pm. Please note that tickets bought in person at the ticket see an increase in price on matchday.

Our family ticket offer is also available for Saturday's game, which admits one adult and one child for just £25! Supporters that have purchased a family ticket will be seated in our family block, which is located in Block A of the Quarry Lane End. Fans with a family ticket may also be seated in Block B of the Quarry Lane End if demand dictates so.

Sandy’s Bar & Kitchen and our fans' zone bar will both open at 12pm.

Sandy's Bar & Kitchen will serve matchday food from midday up until kick-off. No food will be available from Sandy's after the game.

Alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks are available for both home and away supporters, and the bar is located at the rear of the Ian Greaves Stand.

The bar will remain open until 9pm after the match.

Supporters will also be able to purchase the latest edition of our matchday programme The Stag for just £2.50 prior to Saturday's game.

The Stag can be purchased from the merchandise stand near Sandy’s Bar & Kitchen, our matchday kiosks & bars, or any mobile programme vendor around One Call Stadium.

Can't make it to the game? This season's programmes are available to purchase online. To get your copy of this week's edition, click here.

Parking is unfortunately unavailable at One Call Stadium.

All reserved car parking spaces are within the location of the Ian Greaves Stand car park. Please note that the car park shuts 30 minutes prior to kick-off due to safety regulations.

The following sites, owned by Mansfield District Council and with easy access to One Call Stadium are Grove Street, Victoria Street, Garden Road and Church Lane.

Charges are as follows:

Grove St 50p/hr
Victoria St 50p/hr
Garden Rd 50p/hr
Church Lane 80p/hr

All of the above pay and display surface level car parks offer cashless parking via RingGo as an additional way to pay.

Every car park has a unique code so people can either pay over the phone, by text, online or by using a free smartphone app.

Details of how to do this are displayed in each car park. Information about all Mansfield District Council car parks can be found at www.mansfield.gov.uk/carparks.

Where do I go when I get to One Call Stadium?

Hospitality

If you are a hospitality guest, please enter the stadium via the brown double doors to the rear of the Ian Greaves Stand, which is the entrance to our hospitality suites.

The doors are located to the left of the white merchandise stall outside Sandy’s Bar & Kitchen, backing onto the main car park and sign-posted 'The Kevin Bird Suite'.

Media

Members of the media are asked to also head to the entrance to our hospitality suites, where our media steward will provide you with the necessary accreditation.

The required entrance is located to the left of the merchandise stall outside Sandy’s Bar & Kitchen and signposted 'The Kevin Bird Suite'.

Supporters

If you need to collect tickets, please head to the main ticket office on Quarry Lane. For ticket purchases, please visit the matchday ticket office, adjacent to the Quarry Lane Stand, around the corner from the main ticket office.

The Ian Greaves Stand is the main stand at One Call Stadium, which backs onto the main car park.

Away supporters are housed in the North Stand, which can be accessed via Portland Retail Park. Please note: there is no matchday parking at the retail park.

Can't make it to the game? You can follow the action live via our Twitter match updates, which can be found here.

The match centre on mansfieldtown.net will also contain Opta-populated updates, and can be accessed here.

A report of the match will be published on the club website following the full-time whistle, and post-match reaction will be available to view on mansfieldtown.net and iFollow Stags.

iFollow Stags subscribers can listen to full-match commentary of the clash - courtesy of Martin Shaw - by logging into iFollow Stags 15 minutes before kick-off. The match will not be streamed live on iFollow Stags.

Supporters who are blind or visually impaired can take advantage of our fantastic free audio descriptive commentary service.

Provided by Alan March Sport, supporters can listen to commentary from trained audio description broadcasters.

To take advantage of this free service, please visit the entrance to the Kevin Bird Suite at One Call Stadium after 1pm on Saturday.

Follow us across our social media accounts to keep fully updated on all areas of a Stags’ matchday. Click the below links to redirect to the corresponding social media account.

Facebook
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YouTube

To add us on Snapchat, search ‘mtfcofficial.’

Match Reports

Report: Stags 2-1 Newport County AFC

14 August 2021

First-half goals from George Maris and Ollie Clarke saw the Stags secure back-to-back wins in Sky Bet League Two.

Mansfield took the lead after just seven minutes, George Maris finding the bottom corner from outside the box two minutes before Robbie Wilmott struck the visitors' equaliser.

The skipper’s 43rd minute strike put the hosts ahead once more following some clever interplay with striker Danny Johnson.

Nigel Clough set up with the same starting XI that beat Bristol Rovers 2-1 in the season opener, Stags’ only change saw Elliott Hewitt replace James Clarke on the bench.

Goalscoring duo Oli Hawkins and Danny Johnson returned to lead the line following their exclusion from the side that faced Preston North End in the Carabao Cup in midweek.

Stephen McLaughlin started in his more natural place at left-back following a runout at centre-back on Tuesday night.

Mansfield attacked Newport from the off, McLaughlin’s low cross after 15 seconds was narrowly ahead of Hawkins who had rushed into the goalmouth area from the kick-off.

A long Newport ball forward five minutes later beat Farrend Rawson’s attempted clearance to play Timmy Abraham through before the centre-back recovered to deal with the danger.

Stags halted any hope of an early lead for the visitors by going ahead themselves two minutes later.

Maris received the ball on the edge of the box to curl his effort into the bottom right corner, beating Joe Day, who may have hoped to deal with the strike.

The visitors were back level just two minutes later as a long ball from ‘keeper Day beat the Stags' defence.

Robbie Wilmott raced beyond his marker Rawson to collect the ball with his chest and beat a helpless Nathan Bishop in the Mansfield goal.

Newport wasted a free-kick in a dangerous position after 19 minutes, Wilmott drove his set-piece into Ed Upson whose skewed shot was deflected wide.

McLaughlin’s break from the back a minute later set Johnson through on goal, following a slight deflection on Newport’s Chris Missilou, however the striker’s effort was straight at Day and easily dealt with.

Hawkins teed up Rhys Oates on the edge of the box with 27 minutes played but the attacking midfielder’s snapshot drifted wide of the left post.

Perch fouled Azaz after half an hour and Haynes’ subsequent free-kick was well held by Bishop after the ball was driven powerfully through the wall.

A lively start saw the visitors receive their second caution of the match, Missilou going into the book after 33 minutes.

Newport found themselves up the pitch five minutes later as Haynes drilled a left-sided shot through the box and narrowly wide of the bottom right corner.

Stags regained their lead two minutes before the break following some clever centre forward play by Johnson.

The striker received the ball with his chest and laid off Clarke with his second touch, allowing the skipper to smash the ball past Day from inside the box.

Missilou dispossessed Maris five minutes after the break playing in Abraham whose off-balance shot rolled narrowly wide of the bottom right corner.

A right sided Oates cross minutes later was tipped to safety by Day to deny Hawkins who would surely have headed home at the back post.

Ten minutes after the break Wilmott’s cross found Abraham in space inside the box, but the young forward’s header was glanced wide from a threatening position.

Shortly before the hour mark Kellan Gordon raced up the right by-line clipping a miscued cross which almost fortunately chipped Day and found the back of the net.

Minutes later, Haynes teed up Azaz on the edge of the box whose first time shot was tipped over the ’bar by a stretching Bishop to keep the visitors at bay.

George Lapslie replaced Rhys Oates in the 65^th minute to front the midfield diamond for Stags.

Elliott Hewitt was introduced in the 77^th minute making his first League appearance for Mansfield since making his move from Grimsby Town.

Johnson should have sealed Stags’ victory three minutes from time, receiving the ball in the box and firing a one on one opportunity into the ‘keepers’ legs.

A late onslaught of direct Newport pressure was seen out by Mansfield’s defenders to see the victory through.

Next up for the Stags is a trip to face Colchester United on Tuesday evening.

STAGS XI: Bishop, Gordon (72’ Hewitt), McLaughlin, Rawson, O. Clarke, Maris, Johnson, Hawkins, Perch, Quinn (90’ Bowery), Oates (65’ Lapslie)

UNUSED SUBS: Shelvey, Hewitt, Burke, Sinclair, Stirk

NEWPORT COUNTY XI: Day, Norman, Haynes, Upson, J Clarke, Farquharson, Wilmott, Abraham (72’ Greenidge) , Bennett, Azaz, Missilou (65’ Fisher)

UNUSED SUBS: Townsend, Lewis, Collins, Woodiwiss, Livermore

REFEREE: Anthony Backhouse

ASSISTANTS: Wayne Grunnill & Bradley Hall

FOURTH OFFICIAL: Gareth Roberts

ATTENDANCE: 3,793 (156)