Morecambe vs Mansfield Town Predictions

After having an awful start to the season, Morecambe picked up the pace and now sit four points and five places away from the relegation zone, however, they did lose at home to Colchester over the weekend. Morecambe lost 1-0 and were largely toothless throughout the match, having no shots on target but having a lot of possession. Against a side who are targeting automatic promotion, a narrow loss against this side in the circumstances may not be the worst result.

Indeed, Morecambe have been hit with several significant injuries that has derailed the momentum they had built up. Key players like Alex Kenyon and Alex Fleming are both out, whilst squad members such as Garry Thompson have been injured long-term. It has made this season that bit more difficult and it started to really show against Colchester.

Despite this, the spirit and character that has defined Morecambe in recent seasons has been on full show in this campaign. Their first win of the season saw them beat Northampton 1-0 as midfielder Alex Kenyon went in goal for the last five minutes, after regular keeper Barry Roche had been sent off, with Kenyon pulling off several excellent saves to keep all three points.

The team have also won crucial relegation six-pointers with Grimsby and Macclesfield, whilst drew away at Cheltenham, beating Carlisle on the road as well. These have all come recently and suggest that Morecambe will not be going down without a fight, taking on whatever struggles come their way on and off the pitch.

On the other hand, Mansfield are targeting promotion this season but are in a peculiar position. They sit 13th in the table, five points off the play-offs, yet have two games in hand and will be aiming to win both of those to rise up the table. The team have played football at times worthy of a play-off place, having conceded the second-least amount of goals in the league this year, with nine.

Indeed, Mansfield showed this defensive prowess in the weekend match away at Swindon. The match finished goalless, with the visitors playing over a half with ten men, after Will Atkinson was sent off. However, they held on effectively for another point to keep themselves in sight of the play-offs with those two games in hand.

It was the third draw in a row for David Flitcroft’s team, having also tied with Bury and Oldham in frustrating circumstances. They had put in a great performance away at Bury, winning 2-1 only for Nicky Maynard to score with a scissor-kick deep into added time. With the Oldham match at home, the hosts dominated, having 15 attempts on goal only for Oldham to hold strong and share the points.

The team certainly has the quality to challenge for those promotion places, with a vibrant, young team led by strikers Danny Rose and Tyler Walker, with Otis Khan providing creativity on the wing. However, they just have to start turning those draws into wins.

We think they will manage just that on Tuesday with a victory against Morecambe. The home side have been taken apart by injuries and now is the perfect time to play them. Morecambe will make it incredibly tough to break them down though, so we think it will be a low-scoring win for Mansfield in this match, most likely a hard-fought 1-0 win to continue their unbeaten stretch,