Preview: Mansfield Town vs. Peterborough United - prediction, team news, lineups

A place in the fourth round of the EFL Cup will be on the line when Mansfield Town face Peterborough United at the One Call Stadium on Tuesday.

Mansfield are yet to lose a competitive game this season, while Peterborough are unbeaten in four matches across all competitions.

Match preview

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After narrowly missing out on the League Two playoffs last season, Mansfield are seemingly determined to finish in the top seven this term, having picked up 17 points to leave them in third place in the table.

In their most recent outing against Barrow, Ollie Clarke scored the decisive goal in the 72nd minute to secure a 1-0 victory and extend his side's unbeaten start to the season to 11 competitive matches.

Two of those matches took place in the EFL Cup, where they beat Grimsby Town 2-0 in the first round, before winning a penalty shootout to eliminate Championship outfit Sheffield Wednesday in round two.

Mansfield are now preparing to make their first appearance in the third round since the 2005-06 season, and their home form suggests that they have every chance of prolonging their cup run.

Impressively, the Stags have won four of their opening five competitive matches at the One Call Stadium, and their success has been built on a strong defence which has recorded four clean sheets on home turf this season.

Meanwhile, Peterborough have made a steady start to their League One campaign, picking up 14 points from their nine matches.

Despite adding to that tally with a 1-1 away draw against Bolton Wanderers on Saturday, Posh would have been disappointed to miss out on all three points.

After Jonson Clarke-Harris saw his opener cancelled out within a minute by Victor Adeboyejo, Peterborough were given a boost when Bolton were reduced to 10 men following Gethin Jones's dismissal, but they failed to capitalise on the numerical advantage, ensuring that the spoils were shared.

Posh will now turn their attention to the EFL Cup, having progressed to the third round for the first time in 10 years thanks to penalty-shootout victories over Swindon Town and Portsmouth.

Darren Ferguson will hope that his side can obtain a positive result in regulation time and avoid the lottery of spot kicks this time around, as they look to secure their place in the last 16 for the first time since the 2009-10 campaign.

Team News

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Mansfield boss Nigel Clough is still without the services of defenders Alfie Kilgour, Stephen McLaughlin and Elliott Hewitt due to injury.

Rhys Oates and Stephen Quinn are also sidelined, while Callum Johnson is a doubt because of a hamstring problem.

After recovering from injury to make a substitute appearance at the weekend, George Maris is in contention to start the midweek cup tie.

As for the Posh, goalkeeper Will Blackmore and midfielder Jeando Fuchs remain sidelined with injury issues, while Malik Mothersille is not expected to return to action until October.

Joel Randall dropped out of the side for Saturday's draw with Bolton, but the 23-year-old could return to the starting lineup for Tuesday's away trip.

Clarke-Harris is set to retain his place up front, and the striker will be looking to find the net for a third consecutive game.

Mansfield Town possible starting lineup:

Pym; Bowery, Flint, Brunt, MacDonald; Maris, Reed, Clarke; Keillor-Dunn; Akins, Swan

Peterborough United possible starting lineup:

Bilokapic; Kioso, Knight, Edwards, Burrows; Kyprianou, Collins; Poku, Randall, Mason-Clark; Clarke-Harris

We say: Mansfield Town 2-1 Peterborough United

Although Mansfield may be plying their trade in the league below, they demonstrated in their penalty-shootout win over Sheffield Wednesday that they can compete with teams in the higher divisions.

Having won four of their five home matches this term, we think that the hosts will utilise home advantage to claim a narrow victory over Peterborough on Tuesday.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.