The key takeaways from Mansfield Town's win over Oxford United, including the current injury situation, an update on the trialists and the latest transfer news
You can’t read too much into pre-season friendly victories, we all know that. But, that said, Stags do appear to be in pretty good shape right now.
Saturday’s solid 1-0 win over Championship newboys Oxford United extended Mansfield’s perfect pre-season record to four wins from four outings.
In that time they have conceded just once. They were never likely to concede another against an Oxford side who were lacklustre, you might even say dire, with their lack of energy and maybe even desire failing to cause a confident Stags any real trouble.
Though not tested too much, Mansfield did look well drilled defensively with Aden Flint and Deji Oshilaja looking assured, full-back George Williams getting forward to good effect and Frazer Blake-Tracy looking like a tough nut to crack.
But, for me at least, the stand-out feature of that clean sheet was the team’s ability to defend from the front.
The intensity of that pressing game often caused Oxford to cheaply turn the ball over, none more so than when a failed attempt to play the ball out from the back by Elliott Moore led to the winner.
As the old saying goes, you can only beat what is put in front of you and Stags did that with a confident display.
A bigger victory would certainly have been well deserved, with Stags creating a number of good chances during a high energy first half.
Those chances came during a number of positive spells as Stags produced bright link-ups and quality patterns of play, with Keanu Baccus and Will Swan at their creative best.
But the victory did feature an area of concern with Baccus (tight hamstring) and Swan (twisted ankle) both withdrawn before half-time after picking up knocks.
It adds to an injury-list which includes George Maris, with Nigel Clough confirming the midfielder will miss the start of the season with ankle ligament damage, though it will not need an operation.
Clough also confirmed Elliott Hewitt (troublesome knee), Baily Cargill (tight calf) and Stephen McLaughlin (tight calf) had all missed the Oxford win due to injuries.
Work is still going on to bolster Stags in forward areas, with one bid having been rejected this week and Stags may now be forced to step up their interest in two loan targets.
One forward who will not be joining Stags is trialist Eric McWoods, with Clough confirming they would not be taking their interest any further because of this season’s cap on squad sizes to 21 players.
But talks will continue this week ‘to try and get something sorted’ with Ben Quinn, who at 20 years of age, will avoid falling foul of the capping rules.
From what we have seen so far he is more than likely going to be a good addition to the Stags squad.
Get more reaction to the victory, and the latest Stags news, here.