By Ben Mason
February 18 2008

It won't be easy, that's for sure. Stockport County seem to have woken up from their early season nap and have finally started to hit the form most fans were crying out for after they narrowly missed out on the Play Off Places last year, despite panning Darlington 5-0 in their own back yard.

The recent form of Stockport has seen them rise up the table and into the Play Off places, but they've not made it any easier for themselves. Wobbly early season form saw them humbled by Barnet, Darlington and ofcourse ourselves Mansfield, as they conceded 4 goals in each of those matches.

 But with just 2 defeats in their last 10 games, beating Promotion rivals Rotherham 4-1 in the process, Stockport have seemingly rolled up their sleeves and decided that it's time to start the hard graft. Their Home form hasn't quite been how they'd have liked it to be, but it's not notably bad.

Their hot and cold season was highlighted when lowly Staines heroicly managed to force the FA Cup tie into a replay after drawing 1-1 at Edgely Park. And in the Replay, which after being postponed on the Tuesday finally took place on the Thursday, it was Staines who were to progress in the competition, knocking Stockport out on Penalties. That certainly was the cold part and on the flip side, they managed to go away to Brunton Park to then, League 1 Leaders and come away with a 3-0 win. Quite bizarre. 

Former County Player Matthew Hamshaw 

The Stags go into the game looking to make it 6 away spins on the bounce, something I never thought i'd be contemplating in my life time! If we do manage to pick up all 3 points, that'll mean that in the last 11 games which Mansfield Town have played, the away side will have won every single game. Stockports form of the last 10, as i mentioned earlier, only contains 2 defeats in all those games, Mansfield Town's form in the last 10 looks like so:

WLWLLWLWLW

 So who the hell knows which team will turn up for either side!

Last 5 meeting between the teams at Edgeley Park:

Stockport County 1-0 Mansfield Town

Stockport County 2-2 Mansfield Town

Stockport County 2-0 Mansfield Town

Stockport County 6-3 Mansfield Town

Stockport County 0-1 Mansfield Town

 

Overall Meetings between the two:

 

Stockport County wins	draws	Mansfield Town wins
League	26	20	27
FA Cup	1	0	2
League Cup	1	0	1
Other	1	0	0
Total	29	20	30

information taken from www.soccerbase.com

 

Simply Staggering Prediction: Stockport County 1-0 Mansfield Town