Postponement forced Mansfield Town to quickly refocus on Northampton Town task

After a week of work to combat a footballing Swindon side, heavy rain forced the game to be postponed and Stags were left to find somewhere else to quickly begin preparations for Saturday's expected physical contest at Northampton.

Assistant Stags boss Joe Dunne said: “Obviously we'd rather have played than trained on Saturday due to all the preparation we'd done. You then have to try to restart.

“To get motivated for a game and then train can sometimes have a negative effect, but the players were excellent on Saturday morning and did everything we needed to do.

“Every team you prep against is different. So we now need to focus quickly on a different type of opposition.”

He added: “We had access to a grass pitch close to the stadium that was slightly higher up with better drainage.

“So we managed to get in a tough session and then picked up a couple of games in the afternoon to get our eyes on teams and players. It turned into a busy day.

“I went to watch Cambridge play Carlisle, which was down my neck of the woods.”

Despite the frustration, Dunne had no issues with the postponement.

“With the amount of rain we've had and the water table, it was the right decision,” he said.

“The groundsman and his staff had done all they could to try to get the game on, but it was pretty wet on there and I think the game would have been farcical.

“It was bad – probably one of the worst I've seen for a long time in terms of wet weather.

“I know there's not been many game called off at Mansfield for a long time but it was more suitable for a swimming gala than a soccer match.

“The right decision was made as early as possible. It was an easy one to make.”