harriers-online match preview
9th January 2004 
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Mansfield Town
At Field Mill
Saturday
10/1/04 3:00pm
After the ecstasy of last weeks FA Cup game it's back to, probably, a more important game tomorrow when the Harriers travel to 4th placed Mansfield Town.  They came a cropper on Saturday when they went out of the FA Cup at home to Burnley, 2-1, and had two men sent off into the bargain.

It's nice to have a good Cup run and have the chance to play at a Premiership ground but at the end of the day I'm sure we would all swap League points for Cup glory.

As part of the loan deal with Town we won't be allowed to play Andy White in this game, although he hasn't figured in recent games we'll know if he's finally staying or going back to Mansfield once Jan has settled on a front line.  He's bought in Christiansen and must now try him out with various partners.  Once that's done we'll know more.

We've gone from a team with hardly any strikers to a team with a glut of them now.  In addition to Christiansen we have Henriksen, Rickards, John Williams as well as White.  It would be nice to keep them all but at least one will have to go and I feel that it'll be Williams due to his age.

Also missing for us will be Danny Williams.  He twisted his knee against Wolves but could be back in time for the replay.  Either one of the ex-Mansfield players, Matt Gadsby and Adam Murray will take his place.

Lee Jenkins (knee) is almost ready for a return but Jan is unlikely to risk him in either game and his return might be delayed till when we play Darlington next weekend.


The Stags also have a few injuries to contend with.  Tony Vaughan limped out of their Boxing Day game against Rochdale but is not quite ready for a return yet.  Neither is the ex Shrewsbury donkey Dave Artell, he has a hamstring injury but is being kept out by the good form of Luke Dimech and Rhys Day.

Adam Eaton, who has only made one appearance so far this season, will be out for much longer after he aggravated his ankle on the hard Sheffield Utd indoor training pitch this week and old Harriers favourite Neil MacKenzie has broken three fingers in an accident at home so he'll be out.

Mansfield have strength in depth in their squad and that has helped keep them amongst the front runners all season.  That's something that we need and the new influx of players should not mean that we have to ship the same number out.  We have to build up a strong squad.

Hopefully this game will be a spur for Bo to get back onto the score sheet.  It was his two goals in the first game of the season that gave us a 2-1 win over the Stags, although we were far from impressive on that scorching hot day back in August.  It would also set us up nicely for the game at Molineux three days later.

Teams

Harriers from:
Brock, Danby, Stamps, Gadsby, Hatswell, Jenkins, Murray, Coleman, Smith, Hinton, Parrish, Bennett, Betts, Ward, Shilton, Christiansen, Henriksen, Rickards, J Williams, Heath.

Mansfield from:
Pilkington, J White, Clarke, Curtis, Day, Lawrence, Disley, Larkin, Corden, Hassell, Buxton, Beardsley, Mitchell, Mendes, Dimech, Christie, K Curle, Williamson, Mulligan, Hurst, T Curle.
Previous games against Mansfield
Harriers score first
Home
Away
2003 - 04
2 - 1
 
2002 - 03
None
None
2001 - 02
1 - 1
1 - 1
2000 - 01
1 - 0
1 - 2

links to some
mansfield websites:

official site
stagsnet
stags online
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