Mansfield Town's under 18s will be searching for a positive start to the calendar year against Rotherham United on Saturday (16 January) in the Football League Youth Alliance (11am kick-off).
The young Stags will be fresh going into the contest against the Millers after last week’s game against Lincoln City was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.Â
With plenty of time on the training field under the stewardship of John Dempster, the youngsters will be looking to build on their superb first half of the campaign which has seen them become firm contenders in the race for the league title.
In their last league outing, Cameron Healey’s first-half header handed his side victory against Grimsby Town in a close encounter.
Dempster is set to be without Surafel Behailu and Joel McLean for the visit of Rotherham who are out with collarbone and hip injuries, respectively. Tom Slone is back in non-contact training, but the game against Rotherham is likely to be too soon for his return.
In Rotherham’s last match, they suffered their first defeat in four matches with a slender 1-0 loss to Doncaster Rovers at home. Saturday’s visitors are ninth in the division, eight points off the Stags.
Like Mansfield, the Millers had their game on January 09 postponed due to the weather conditions, so both sides will be raring to go in what is sure to be an intriguing encounter in Nottinghamshire.
In the previous fixture between the two sides in September, Tyler Blake put Dempster’s men ahead before Ross Dickinson equalised – but Cain Smith grabbed the winner late in the game to secure all three points for the Stags.
The game will be held at Rainworth Miners Welfare and the address is as follows:
Kirklington Road,
Kirklington Road,
Rainworth,
Mansfield,
Nottinghamshire,
NG21 0JY
