No team talk needed for derby with AFC Mansfield, says Clipstone boss Cotton

Clipstone boss Ian Cotton won't be wasting his Friday night putting the final touches to his pre-match team talk because he doesn't believe his players need one for the local derby against AFC Mansfield.
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The two teams go head-to-head in the NCEL Premier Division at the Forest Town Stadium on Saturday, with local pride very much on the line with nine places and 14 points separating them in the pre-weekend standings.

AFC Mansfield, seventh in the table, have had a mixed bag of results in April so far; winning one, losing one and drawing most recently at home to Hemsworth Miners Welfare on Saturday.

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Their opponents Clipstone, however, go into the game without a win since the end of March - a month they boasted three wins from three - and have only picked up a point so far this month.

Cotton said: “The lads are buzzing for it, there’s nothing like a local derby. We’ve been speaking about it for two or three weeks now. I won’t have to do much of a team talk on Saturday.

We watch teams play, we watch Youtube videos of teams and see their strengths but we focus on what we do and see if we can impact the game by how we play.

“We don’t get het up too much about other teams, we concentrate on ourselves. Rudy doesn’t put weak sides out, he’s going to win the game and there’s a lot of pride at stake.

“We’re well up for it.”

The two side drew 2-2 in the reverse fixture at Clipstone in front of more than 100 fans on a cold December Tuesday night. Visit www.chad.co.uk for the aftermath.

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