📊 Form Guide

Mansfield Town

WWLWLW

Mansfield Town fans will want a repeat of their previous result, being a 1-5 League Two success over Bradford City.

For Mansfield Town, the scorers were Baily Cargill (10'), Lucas Akins (14'), Davis Keillor-Dunn (18'), Will Swan (45') and Aaron Lewis (86'). Andy Cook (72') scored for Bradford City.

Three or more goals per match have been seen in 5 of the last 6 meetings where Mansfield Town have been involved. Opposing sides scored 8 of them in this period while Mansfield Town managed a tally of 16. Previous results aside, time will tell whether the trend shall be maintained in this next game.

Heading into this contest, Mansfield Town haven't lost in the league to Colchester United in their previous 7 matches.

Colchester United

LDDDLD 📉

In the game prior to this, Colchester United drew 1-1 in the League Two tie with Walsall.

The only player to score from Colchester United was Cameron McGeehan (48'). Taylor Allen (37') was the scorer for Walsall.

The attacking players from Colchester United have failed to get amongst the goals over their last 6 encounters, contributing the unsatisfactory return of only 4. In those matches, The U's have also seen the collective goal tally against them equal 7.

Their prior results show that Colchester United:

• have not won against Mansfield Town in games played away from home for the previous 3 league matches.
• have not won away from home in their last 4 league games.

↔️ Head to head

A glance at their prior head to head clashes stretching back to 14/02/2021 tells us that Mansfield Town have won 3 of these and Colchester United 0, with the tally of draws standing at 3.

In all, 16 goals were scored between the two sides in these games, with 10 for The Stags and 6 created by The U's. That’s an average goals per game of 2.67.

The last league clash featuring the two was League Two match day 8 on 16/09/2023 which finished with the scoreline of Colchester United 1-1 Mansfield Town.

The referee was Andrew Davies.

ℹ️ Team News: Mansfield Town

There is just a single fitness concern for the Mansfield Town manager Nigel Clough to be concerned about due to a largely intact set of players. Alfie Kilgour (Achilles tendon rupture) misses out.

We are thinking that The Stags should make use of the 4-3-3 system this time, utilising Christy Pym, Jordan Bowery, Aden Flint, Lewis Brunt, Baily Cargill, Hiram Boateng, Louis Reed, Stephen Quinn, Will Swan, Davis Keillor-Dunn and Lucas Akins.

📰 Team News: Colchester United

Colchester United boss Danny Cowley has multiple availability issues to deal with. Zach Mitchell (Hamstring injury), Marley Marshall-Miranda (Ankle injury), Fiacre Kelleher (Torn thigh muscle), Samson Tovide (Ankle injury) and Mandela Egbo (Knee injury) are names that won’t be on the team sheet.

We’re of the thinking that The U's might make use of a 3-5-2 formation, settling for Owen Goodman, Jay Mingi, Thomas Dallison, Connor Hall, Harry Anderson, Alistair Smith, Arthur Read, Cameron McGeehan, Jayden Fevrier, Bradley Ihionvien and Tom Hopper.

🧠 Prediction

It looks to us like Colchester United may well find it hard to put one past a Mansfield Town side who look set to set up a big win.

We reckon that it will be a convincing 3-0 winning scoreline for Mansfield Town at the end of the 90 minutes.

Our expert partners are tipping over 1.5 goals for this match. Check out their VIP predictions here.

Peter Guest, 12:02 23/03/2024