Mansfield Town under-18s face Rotherham United this Saturday at RH Academy in the Youth Alliance Merit League (11am kick-off).
Stags finished the Youth Alliance League regular campaign top of the Northeast Division but now begin a five-match sequence of fixtures against teams that finished in the top half of the table.
Professional development phase lead coach Steve Chettle went into detail on the structure of his team’s final five Merit League matches.
“The league splits into two. There are 11 teams in the league so the top six end up playing each other once and the bottom five end up playing each other once.
“We’ve got five games left.
“The points carry over so even though we won the [most] league fixtures – which were calendar fixtures – the points continue over during the Merit League to accumulate a total altogether so somebody else could still win the league, depending on how our remaining five matches go.”
Stags face a Rotherham side that currently sit one place behind them in second. The PDP lead coach provided an insight into the previous matches between the two teams this season.
“The first game was early in the season where we were leading for most of the game and then we lost the game 4-3.
“In the second game, we beat them on a terrible pitch on a wet, Friday afternoon.
“We played really well that day so we’ll look to continue the form that we’ve had in the league.
“I know we had a blip against Burton in the last game at home but we go into the Merit League fixtures full of confidence and looking for some positive results.”
On what the group have been doing since their last outing, the former Nottingham Forest defender said: “We’ve been getting people fit.
“In the last two games we’ve had Jakub Kruszynski back – he scored a hat-trick against Notts County and he also scored again against Burton.
“We’ve had to be careful with Jakub because it’s been such a long break since his hamstring injury but he’s getting back to full fitness and we’re trying to get some more minutes out of him again this weekend.
“To get Jakub back has been a big boost for him and us.
“We’ve got Louis Bonser back fit as well so it’s been nice to have a mini- break. The fixtures have been frantic and we’ve now been able to get players back on the pitch.
“We’re back to full strength, minus [the injured] McKeal Abdullah.”
Supporters can attend the game for FREE at: Woburn Lane, Mansfield NG19 7RT
