Mansfield Town closing in on double loan boost before the weekend
Mansfield Town look set to boost their squad with two loan signings before Sunday's tough FA Cup third round tie away at Championship side Sheffield United.
Only one of them will be able to play in the big tie, but with such a busy programme ahead and six key players still sidelined, boss Nigel Clough believes the two new faces will give a big lift to his tired squad who, despite being threadbare, have just pulled off three successive victories.
“We are hoping to get a couple of loans in this week,” he said.
“One will be eligible for Sunday and one won't.
“We are pretty close on those two and hopefully we should have some news in the next couple of days.
“We still have five or six players missing with some coming back.
"But the knock-on effect of last weekend's postponement is we now have 24 games to play in about 15 weeks.
“When you take the international break into consideration it is going to be almost Saturday/Tuesday/Saturday for the majority of weeks.
“I don't think any of the other injured players who haven't already featured will be ready for Sunday.”
Mansfield's hopes of a fourth successive win in league One were dashed by the frost at the weekend with the trip to Rotherham United postponed after an early inspection.
“We were disappointed with the run we were on – we wanted to play, but it was an understandable decision,” said Clough.
“There were so many games off in League One and I think we would have struggled to play any home too.”
Another game off was Sheffield United's home clash with Oxford United, despite the Blades using their undersoil heating system.
“I was surprised they were off but hopefully it's going to thaw a bit by the weekend and we should be playing on Sunday,” said Clough.
The Stags boss is a former Sheffield United manager and is pleased to see their poor start to the Championship season turning into one in which they are now on an upward trajectory.
“I am looking forward to going back to Bramall Lane. I have many happy memories there and it's always nice to go back,” he said.
“I am delighted to see Chris (Wilder) back in charge there too.
“The decision to get rid of him in the summer was a strange one in a lot of people's minds as he got 90-odd points last season and just missed out in the play-offs.
“They are more than capable of having a little charge up the table.
“You have already seen the impact he's had getting them away from the bottom three towards mid-table. And I am sure the next step will be can they get up there and challenge?”
Stags will be backed by a huge following with less than 400 of their 4,800 allocation left earlier this week.