Colchester United will travel to the One Call Stadium for their next SkyBet League Two clash with Mansfield Town on Saturday 23rd March (KO 12:30pm), shown live on Sky Sports.
The U's picked up a point against play-off chasing Walsall last week, but will be looking to go one better against the league leaders this weekend.
The Opposition
The Stags top the league standings, four points clear of Stockport and with a game in hand, having so far managed seventy-two points from thirty-eight matches.
While promotion is the first hurdle to overcome, Mansfield are also looking like favourites to win their first Football League title since 1977.
The Nottinghamshire-based side are enjoying a fantastic season, having scored the most goals in the league (seventy-eight) and conceded the least (thirty-six).
Last time out Mansfield faced Bradford and the Bantams could count themselves fortunate to have only lost 5-1 as Stags rained in twenty-seven shots on the home goal, compared with Bradford’s six. There were also five different scorers, including a nineteenth goal of the season for Davis Keillor-Dunn.
Mansfield have eight games left to clinch promotion, five at home, but manager Nigel Clough stressed that his men “need to stay totally focused” on themselves.
He said: “The players are intelligent enough to do that and pay no regard to the league table whatsoever.
“We realise we are in a reasonable position, but there is still nothing taken for granted at all in any shape or form.
“There are still twenty-four points to play for and anything can happen. But we're happy to get over that seventy point mark again with eight games to go and we go into them in reasonably good form and reasonably confident.
“We know if we perform then teams will find it difficult against us. However, if we dip slightly as we have done in a couple of games, then any team can beat us at any time – including Colchester.
“This league is so strong and equal in so many ways that the teams in the bottom six are as likely to beat you as the teams in the top six.
“If you have Forest Green and Sutton United in the bottom two you are in a pretty strong league as they are two good teams.
“We have seen Colchester a couple of times recently and they've been very unlucky not to come away with the three points."
The U’s will have to watch out for several players on Saturday afternoon including the previously mentioned Davis Keillor-Dunn who has nineteen goals and nine assists to his name in thirty-eight league appearances.
Lucas Akins could also be a threat with the forward managing fourteen goal contributions (twelve goals and two assists) in thirty-seven league outings.
Last Time We Met
The U’s came close to claiming all three points at the JobServe Community Stadium on 16th September 2023 when they went ahead through Joe Taylor’s effort after thirty minutes. The Stags, however, were able to find the equaliser through Keillor-Dunn in the last minute of the match.
Ticket Info
Supporters are reminded that Saturday’s clash will kick off at 12:30pm after being moved to be shown live on Sky Sports - tickets are available to purchase online from Mansfield's ticketing platform. Click HERE to get yours.
iFollow Info
If you can’t make it to the One Call Stadium or don’t have a Sky Sports subscription, you can listen to all the action live with a £2.50 iFollow Audio Pass. Click HERE to see what options are available to you.
