Match preview: Mansfield Town v York City (From York Press)

Match preview: Mansfield Town v York City

10:36am Tuesday 16th March 2010 in

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YORK City will visit a Mansfield Town team tonight currently at war with their own supporters.

Stags fans booed the side off the pitch and chanted “what a load of rubbish” at the end of Saturday’s 0-0 stalemate against Tamworth, leading on-loan Luton player Andy Burgess to moan afterwards: “I would rather they didn’t turn up and we played in front of one man if that’s how they’re going to be.”

The latest abuse came just seven days after one spectator threw his season ticket at manager David Holdsworth even though Mansfield were winning at the time and went on to secure a 4-2 victory over Salisbury.

Despite a record of just two league defeats at home all season against Gateshead (0-2) and Stevenage (2-3), however, Holdsworth’s men have won just two of their last ten Field Mill fixtures and failed to net during five of the last seven encounters on their own soil.

It is a sequence that has left the Nottinghamshire outfit six points adrift of a play-off place and lying ninth in the Blue Square Premier standings.

The Stags also boast the 14th-worst defensive record in the division, conceding 44 goals during their 34 league fixtures.

Former on-loan Minsterman Luke Foster, signed from Oxford during the transfer window and made captain, has been tasked with improving that record and the Stags have managed clean sheets during two of their last three matches – the 0-0 home draws against Tamworth and Luton either side of that Salisbury triumph.

Foster is expected to be fit to face his old club despite hobbling at the end of the Tamworth game after all three substitutions had been made.

At the other end of the pitch, another ex-Bootham Crescent loanee Jon Shaw has been brought in to help increase the Stags’ attacking options.

Shaw, who had previously been loaned out to Gateshead and Barrow this season from League Two leaders Rochdale, has netted three times in seven games since being recruited by Holdsworth.

Mansfield are the fifth-highest scorers in the Blue Square Premier and the former Sheffield Wednesday forward is expected to start alongside 13-goal leading marksman Rob Duffy this evening.

Duffy, though, has only netted once in nine home matches – a run stretching back to October 3.

One-time Scarborough striker Jake Speight, who has started just ten games but netted nine times this season, could also make the bench after recovering from a knee problem that has seen him sidelined since the start of February.

Midfielder Jon Challinor remains a doubt, however, after missing the Tamworth game due to injury, while Burgess, now fully recovered from a recent illness, could return to the staring line-up in place of Ryan Williams.

Tonight’s game will be Mansfield’s fourth successive home match and, despite the fans’ frustrations, Holdsworth’s team are undefeated in five games.

Mansfield (probable): Marriott, Silk, Foster, Brough, Nicholas, Briscoe, Nix, Mills, Burgess, Duffy, Shaw.

Match facts

The clubs met for the first time in the Blue Square Premier last season and City lost 1-0 on their visit to Field Mill on February 7, 2009.

City’s line-up was: Ingham, Rusk, Critchell, Parslow, Robinson (Shepherd), Brown, Mackin, C Smith, Boyes, Brodie, McBreen (A Smith).

In the Football League, City made 34 trips to Mansfield, winning nine times and drawing six.

It happened on March 16

1957: A 2-0 win at Gateshead with Gordon Brown and Arthur Bottom the scorers. City were in the top half of Division Three North.

1960: City lost at home to Norwich City 2-1 in front of 6,510 and were 17th in Division Three (League One). Terry Farmer was the marksman.

1963: Billy Rudd and Tommy Heron were on target in a 2-0 win at Oxford United, but City remained in the bottom four of the Fourth Division.

1974: In a top of the table Division Three (League One) clash at Bootham Crescent City beat Bristol Rovers 2-1 with Ian Holmes scoring a last-minute penalty. Chris Jones was the other scorer and the attendance was 11,066. City were second in the league behind Rovers.

2002: Mike Basham and Michael Proctor netted in a 2-0 home victory over Darlington watched by 3,903. City were below mid-table in the Third Division (League Two).

Compiled by David Batters