Match Preview: Port Vale versus Mansfield Town, 21 Sept 2019

Can the Valiants bounce back from their away loss to Exeter City with a home win over under-pressure Mansfield Town?

Team news

It will be interesting to see what line-up the Valiants field on Saturday. James Gibbons and David Amoo are both expected to be back but there is a mounting list of unavailable players. Rhys Browne is a fitness doubt, while Manny Oyeleke won’t be considered until next week, striker Jordan Archer is still recovering from a shoulder injury and the match will come too soon for Tom Conlon and Callum Evans. We’ve produced a table of which Vale players are fit and which are not here

Mansfield defender Matt Preston will miss the game through suspension following his straight red card against Cambridge on Tuesday night. The centre-back will miss four games through suspension due to the sending off.

Stats

It was a memorable match at Vale Park last season when the two sides last met. Two goals from striker Ricky Miller (right) gave Vale a priceless win in their successful battle to beat the drop. It was certainly a better occasion than the last time Port Vale hosted Mansfield. Back in 2017 the side slumped to a 4-0 home loss.

The overall record between the two sides is 22 Port Vale wins, 13 draws and 16 Mansfield wins.

Connections

There are three former Valiants in the Mansfield squad in striker Craig Davies (pictured right during his Vale Park spell), winger Will Atkinson and defender Krystian Pearce. All three had loan spells with Port Vale earlier in their careers.

Other players to appear for both sides in recent years include defender Lee Collins, winger Colin Daniel, forward Louis Briscoe and centre-half Ritchie Sutton.

Pre-match quote

We just have to go with the same attitude. We know when we are at Vale Park we are a force to be reckoned with. Hopefully that will be the case on Saturday. Then hopefully as the fixtures on paper get a little bit easier we will start picking up points away from home as well…

Port Vale manager John Askey (right)