Mansfield Town glad to have hot prospect Khan in their ranks against his old club

Mansfield Town v Newport County.
Otis Khan celebrates his second goal. — Mansfield Town v Newport County. Otis Khan celebrates his second goal.

The highly promising Khan signed for an undisclosed fee in the summer and scored twice in a sparkling debut on Saturday.

“Yeovil are obviously going to miss Otis, as any team would, and we have benefited from that,” smiled Flitcroft.

“I think he lit the stadium up on Saturday and is someone I love working with.

“At the moment he doesn’t know how good he potentially he can be and if we can get that work right we have one hell of an asset for the football club.

“I’d just like to reiterate how professional Darren Way and John Fry were to get the deal done.

“They were outstanding how they allowed us to speak to Otis and get it done. There were other clubs interested but we stole a march on it and went quite early.”

While Stags were seeing off Newport, Yeovil had two players sent off at Flitcroft’s former club, Bury, though were only pipped 1-0 at the death.

“This Saturday will be their first home game of the season so you’ve got that to contend with – a bit like the atmosphere we had here on Saturday, which was incredible,” said Flitcroft.

“Our fans were outstanding. They turned out not only in numbers but also in voice and it was a brilliant atmosphere.

“Yeovil will try to replicate that at their first home game.

“They had a tough start with having two boys sent off. It was a valiant effort at Gigg Lane and they only got done in the last minute, so you can see the spirit Darren has built there. They put up a fantastic fight for the manager.”

He added: “It’s probably a good trip to get out of the way. We’ve had a lot of home games pre-season so we’ve had no travel, then a decent start with a home game.

“An early trip to Yeovil gets those logistics out of the way on Saturday. “The way we won there last season stirs some good memories.

“It’s League Two and every game is a different test. Pre-season they tried to move through the pitch in the games we’ve monitored. We have a bit more work to do on that, then we will concentrate on us.”