Another day, another win to nil for Plymouth Argyle. Isn’t this becoming a remarkably familiar occurrence?
Yes, at the weekend, Argyle continued their miraculous start to 2026 with their third consecutive league win and clean sheet. It’s ten points from a possible 12 since the turn of the year, surely putting any relegation fears to bed, and allowing us to finally look up the table rather than down. The best part has been the genuine excitement, rather than existential dread, that has come with watching Tom Cleverley’s side in recent weeks.
Of course, this shouldn’t simply be seen as “job done.” Being 14th in a league you’ve just been relegated into isn’t good enough, and Argyle will need to ride this wave of momentum for the rest of the season to achieve anything like their goals coming into the campaign. Their next opportunity to do so? Tuesday night, when Mansfield Town become the latest visitors to Home Park.
Having already beaten, and largely outplayed, Peterborough United and Luton Town, Mansfield may appear to be comparative pushovers. That’d be a dangerous assumption. They’ve been streaky this year under Nigel Clough, but they come into this one on an excellent run of form, albeit having conceded a stoppage time equaliser to drop points against Stevenage on Saturday. They’ll come to Devon capable of causing problems.
The reverse fixture
28th October 2025: Mansfield Town 2 (Evans 6’, Bowery 84’) Plymouth Argyle 0
♫ Greens away, uh-huh, uh-huh, we hate it ♫
That was the soundtrack to yet another forgettable Argyle display during the first half of the season. Following a completely unacceptable Devon Derby defeat, Cleverley’s side were looking for a reaction on another midweek night away from home. Instead, the display seemed to lack heart, and led most of us to conclude that Cleverley had no chance of turning things around. Hopefully, that’ll continue to be proved wrong.
As expected, Clough’s Mansfield lined up with a 4-2-3-1. After coming close to taking Jean-Phillippe Mateta’s head off last season, Liam Roberts left Millwall for Mansfield and started in goal. He was protected by a back four consisting of, from left to right, Stephen McLaughlin, Frazer Blake-Tracy, Deji Oshilaja and Kyle Knoyle.
A Celtic duo made up the midfield double pivot, with Northern Ireland’s Jamie McDonnell teaming up with Wales’ Aaron Lewis. They’d offer support to another Roberts, Tyler this time, in the number 10 role. Finally, there was the front three, with centre forward Rhys Oates flanked by Will Evans to his left, and Nathan Moriah-Welsh on the right.
Argyle had the better of the early exchanges and created a couple of openings, most notably when Mathias Ross headed wide from a corner. But that was shortly followed by one of the worst goals the Greens have conceded all season, and that’s some contest.
After Ross initially won a header from a long pass, Brendans Galloway and Wiredu left the ball for each other. With neither yielding, they suddenly both decided to play it at the same time. The result? Galloway played it onto Wiredu, Wiredu’s clearance went backwards by about a yard, and Evans was on hand to easily slot past Conor Hazard. Having looked to start brightly, Argyle were 1-0 down away from home again. Within six minutes.
Something of a lull followed. Argyle had certain openings, with Owen Oseni shooting straight at Liam Roberts and Lorent Tolaj putting a free kick wide, but neither could be considered a significant chance. In fact, the best opportunity for the remainder of the first half went to Mansfield, with Tyler Roberts heading wide from the centre of the box after good link-up play on the right between Knoyle and Moriah-Welsh.
If Mansfield could have doubled their advantage before half time, they certainly should have done shortly after the break. Argyle were cut apart far too easily, with a simple ball through the middle getting Oates in behind. Hazard saved his initial effort, but the ball rebounded to Oates…who somehow fired into the side netting. To his credit, Wiredu atoned slightly for his earlier error by pressuring the striker, but he should have scored nonetheless.
Chances then continued to flow in an open second half. First, Tolaj headed over after Ross again won the initial header from an Argyle corner. A minute later, Mansfield had an even bigger chance at the other end. Evans crossed from the left, Moriah-Welsh peeled away from Owen Dale, and had a free header from the edge of the six-yard box. He put it high and wide, and really ought to have hit the target.
Argyle survived plenty of scares, but should have had an equaliser with 13 minutes to play. After Oshilaja failed to see the ball out of play, two substitutes combined neatly as Jamie Paterson teed up Tegan Finn right in front of goal. However, the 17-year-old seemed to panic, shot straight at Liam Roberts, and the rebound was kind for the goalkeeper. As it turns out, this was as close as Argyle got to levelling the game.
And after the miss came the sucker punch. Mansfield broke down the right before crossing, Moriah-Welsh missed another big chance, but the ball fell to another substitute in the rarely seen centre back/striker hybrid of Jordan Bowery, who fired home. Watching Kornel Szucs “defend” at various parts of the move was painful.
And that was that. The game was open, particularly in the second half, and could have gone either way. But the most deserving winners were certainly Mansfield. For Argyle, it was the second of four consecutive defeats by a two-goal margin, and no signs at all that things could turn around as they ultimately have.
Similarities
After playing Peterborough and Luton, both of whom had changed head coach from the reverse fixture, Argyle will now face one to have kept faith in their gaffer. Clough was in charge in October, and he’s still in the hotseat now, so we should probably anticipate a similar style of play.
Part of that will be the fact that Mansfield still can’t be considered a long ball team. Yes, the Stags did create some notable chances with direct passing through the middle last time, but they didn’t deploy it regularly. Despite Argyle still being in their possession-heavy period of the season, Mansfield generally matched them, having 48% of the ball on the night. And across the campaign, only five teams in the league have completed fewer long passes per game than Mansfield’s 21.1.
Don’t get me wrong, Clough’s men can’t be considered a possession side either. Their average possession of 45.1% this season is fairly low, and the fact they were able to basically keep up with Argyle on that front last time was a surprise. I think it’s a sign of what we can expect. Will Mansfield be happy to sit deep and let Argyle have the ball? Yes. But they won’t automatically be inclined to go direct when they are in possession.
In general, I think Clough still being around must be considered a strength. If Argyle are in the play-off race this season, Mansfield certainly are given they’re level on points with two games in hand on the Pilgrims. They had a poor run after last playing Argyle, and such streakiness may have prevented Clough being poached, but he’s consistently proving the doubters wrong during his time at the helm. Who knows how far he can take the Stags this season?
In terms of notable individuals, I’d look towards Evans again. He, of course, opened the scoring in the reverse fixture after Argyle’s defensive mishap, and he’s been a consistent threat throughout the season. He’s Mansfield’s joint-top league goalscorer with six, but comfortably leads the Stags’ xG ranks with 7.87. So yes, he’s underperforming slightly against his xG, but Mansfield underperformed against their xG as a whole when they last played Argyle, so there’s no change there.
That said, Evans certainly isn’t their only threat. In the preview for the reverse fixture, I covered the fact that Mansfield had a plethora of different league goalscorers, and that remains the case. 17 different players have scored at least once in League One for Mansfield this season; when compared to 11 for Argyle, it really does go a long way to demonstrating how Mansfield have a number of potential match winners.
In the reverse fixture, two players scored for Mansfield, and three others missed at least one Opta-defined big chance. Don’t be surprised to see them attacking on multiple fronts on Tuesday night.
Differences
Whilst they have maintained the services of their head coach, we cannot necessarily be sure that Mansfield will stick with their 4-2-3-1 shape. They have occasionally gone back to it, including in the draw at Stevenage at the weekend, but in recent times Clough has often opted for several variations on a back three. Many shapes have been tried, with a 3-4-2-1 the most common used since the start of December.
The return of Lucas Akins, a player who offers significant versatility on the right flank, allows Clough to seamlessly interchange between formations. Akins was available for the reverse fixture, but not deemed match fit having just spent six months at His Majesty’s pleasure. Since returning from his “career break,” he’s started games at right back, right wing back and even in attacking midfield, scoring twice since the start of 2026 alone. He’s one of the many threats to keep an eye on.
Akins’ return isn’t the only personnel change we should keep in mind. The Stags have been busy in the transfer market, with signings including Oliver Irow. The 19-year-old wide man joined on loan from Tottenham Hotspur, scored twice from the bench on his debut, and made his first start for Mansfield in Stevenage. He should start on Tuesday, and could be accompanied by two further new signings: Jon Russell, who joined on loan from Barnsley, and Victor Adeboyejo, signed on a permanent deal from Bolton Wanderers.
There are absences to speak of too. The most notable of those is probably McDonnell; he played the full 90 in the reverse fixture, made more tackles than anyone else on the pitch, and was a key ball-winning midfielder for the Stags for much of the campaign. However, he was only ever on loan.
This month, parent club Nottingham Forest recalled McDonnell, in order to sell him directly to Oxford United. It’s a move akin to Aston Villa recalling Finn Azaz to sell him to Middlesbrough, and could have a similar impact on the Stags’ season. Additionally Bowery, scorer of Mansfield’s second in the reverse fixture, appears to be out injured, meaning Mansfield could actually look very different to the side Argyle faced in October.
In terms of stats, I want to point to their shooting. Mansfield were potent in the reverse fixture, having six big goalscoring chances in total. However, the general trends would suggest they don’t tend to get shots away often. In fact, their average of three shots on target per game ranks a lowly 22nd across the league. If Argyle defend better than they did in October (and it’d be hard not to), they may well keep their visitors quiet.
Mansfield’s crossing also appears to have become less threatening. Several of the chances they created last time, particularly for Moriah-Welsh, came as a result of balls in from the left. However, only four teams have completed fewer crosses per game than the Stags this season. Combine that with the fact Argyle have Joe Edwards available this time around, and they’ll fancy themselves to blunt a weapon that severely hurt them when these sides last met.
Prediction
It’s a tough One to Call. Despite retaining Clough’s services, this appears to be a much-changed Mansfield team. And on paper, not all those changes have been for the better. However, nobody can argue with their recent run of form, and they arrive at Home Park as the higher-ranked side.
With Argyle having several fitness-related concerns, there’s every chance this could be the hardest league game they’ve played in 2026. And I think it may be heading for a draw. I’d love the Greens to go one better, but given the circumstances it wouldn’t be the worst result. 1-1.