Mansfield Town v Harrogate Town: Simon Weaver expecting a good footballing contest

The Sulphurites travel to Field Mill having in fine form having won seven of their previous 10 League Two matches and fresh off the back of a 1-0 success over Colchester United which lifted them into a play-off spot.

The Stags, meanwhile, sit second, just four points behind leaders Stockport County following Saturday's demolition of Forest Green Rovers.

And with both teams known for trying to get the ball down and play, the Harrogate chief is expecting an interesting contest.

“It’s going to be a very difficult game," Weaver said. "Mansfield are on form and it seems like they have been in the automatic spots for what feels like the entirety of the season.

“They’ve got a team full of quality so I think that it will be a good game of football. I know it’s not a fabulous pitch there, but they try and play, we try and play, so it should be a good battle.

“We will have to dig deep again. We’ve been assessing how people are feeling after Saturday, but if we have to utilise the full squad, we will do. We have got faith in every one of them.

“We’ve been on a great run and obviously want to continue that, but with three points in the bag from Saturday we can try and enjoy Tuesday night by expressing ourselves just as we have been doing.”

Town boast an excellent record at Mansfield having won on all of their three previous Football League visits there.

Last term, they triumphed 2-1, but did suffer a first-ever League Two loss to Nigel Clough’s men when they met at Wetherby Road earlier this season, going down by a 4-1 score-line.

Weaver, however, believes that Harrogate head into this week’s fixture a far different proposition from the team that were taken apart by the Stags back in October.

"We are not going into this game in the same mindset as when we played them at home when they were red-hot favourites and in red-hot form, while we weren’t,” he added.

"You can feel it in a changing room sometimes when you’re on the back foot going into a game, but hopefully we are a bit more of a well-oiled machine now.

"Tactically, we know a bit more about them this time, we are two thirds of the way through the season. It will still be a difficult game, but one that we are looking forward to more now than we did during the first third of the season.”

On-loan Southampton right-back Derrick Abu and experienced midfielder Stephen Dooley will both undergo late fitness tests ahead of Tuesday's game after picking minor knocks against Colchester at the weekend.

"We will assess them, and not risk them with big games coming up if we don’t feel that they can give 100 percent,” Weaver continued.

"They may be able to start, we will have to see. And we’ll hopefully keep things unchanged otherwise.”

The pair would join goalkeepers Mark Oxley and Lewis Thomas, defenders Rod McDonald and Toby Sims and striker Sam Folarin on the sidelines should they fail to recover in time.

Kick-off at Field Mill on Tuesday evening is at 7.45pm.