Mansfield Town under-18s travel to Rotherham United tomorrow for a first-versus-second clash in the Youth Alliance League (11am kick-off).
Stags, who sit top of the table, face the Millers following the disappointment of losing 5-4 on penalties to Grimsby last weekend in the semi-final of the Youth Alliance League Cup, after a 0-0 scoreline after 90 minutes.
On the defeat, professional development phase lead coach Steve Chettle said: “It was a horrible way to lose.
“It wasn’t a great game – a game of few chances on a really difficult pitch but it’s one of the frustrating times where we kept a clean sheet and stayed in the game for the whole 90 minutes and we missed out 5-4 on penalties.
“It’s a horrible way to lose the semi-final.
“We have to regroup. We’re sat at the top of the league – we’re there to be shot at from the rest of the teams and that starts tomorrow when we play Rotherham.
“We’ve got to put that one [the Grimsby loss] to bed and remember what that feeling is like and not have that feeling for the rest of the season.”
On tomorrow’s game against Rotherham, the PDP lead coach said: “We’ll be looking to right a few wrongs from the Grimsby game and earlier in the season, we got beat by Rotherham at home.
“We’ll be going to Rotherham United and be positive and continue to try and win the league by getting another three points.
“It’ll be tough. They’re the team below us and are a physical side but we need to get back to winning ways.
“We’ve not had many games this season where we have not performed at our best and not had a positive result so we have got to recover from last weekend.”
Supporters can attend Stags’ game against Rotherham for FREE at the following venue:
The Graham Solley Sports Development Centre, Sheffield & Hallam University, Bawtry Road, Sheffield, S9 1UA
