Preview: Mansfield Town vs Doncaster Rovers - prediction, team news, lineups

Mansfield Town will welcome Doncaster Rovers to the One Call Stadium on Saturday for their first game of the 2026-27 League One season.

The hosts finished five points and four places above their visitors last year, while both teams kicked off the campaign with EFL Cup first-round ties last weekend.

Match preview

Mansfield Town will kick off their third consecutive League One season on Saturday aiming to build on a positive campaign last time around after opening with a cup defeat.

After winning promotion from England's fourth tier and then finishing 17th under Nigel Clough, they finished 10th last time around, earning 65 points from their 46 outings, having only lost 13 of those, while only two teams conceded fewer than the 50 goals they allowed.

The Stags enjoyed a particularly pleasing end to the term, winning five and losing just one of their last 10 games to finish 10 points short of the playoffs, before turning their focus to 2026-27 in a mixed pre-season, culminating in a 3-1 loss to Derby County.

Clough's men would begin at home to second-tier Sheffield United last Sunday and failed to spring any surprises, trailing 1-0 at the break to a Patrick Bamford goal and eventually losing 3-0 as Mark McGuinness and Callum O'Hare found the net in the final 20 minutes.

Now focussing fully on another League One bid, with the hopes of a sustained push in the top half to build on last season, Mansfield Town will look to get off the mark with an opening home victory.

Their visitors, meanwhile, make the trip aiming to replicate last season's trip to the One Call Stadium, again in August, when they won 2-1 early in the 2025-26 term.

That was Doncaster Rovers' first back in League One after their own promotion from the fourth tier, and they eventually finished 14th with 60 points on the board from their 46 matches.

Grant McCann's side will have been particularly pleased with their away record on their return to the third tier, with only seven teams topping their tally of 27 points on the road, including a final-day win at Peterborough United before a busy pre-season schedule.

That started with wins over St Patrick's Glenavon and Linfield and ended with defeats to Wolves and Lincoln City, before the Rovers visited Stockport County in the EFL Cup first round last weekend and progressed, drawing 1-1 in normal time thanks to Alfie May's opener, which was quickly cancelled out, and prevailing in the following penalty shootout.

With definite cause for optimism and the hopes of building on an eventual comfortable mid-table finish in 2025-26, Doncaster Rovers will again look to come out on top in an early-season trip to Mansfield.

Mansfield Town form (all competitions):

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Doncaster Rovers form (all competitions):

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Team News

Mansfield Town should field a similar starting XI from their cup tie last weekend, with Luke Bolton still out with an injury suffered in March.

Key attacker Will Evans did depart over the summer, but the Stags have strengthened in attack with the captures of experienced duo Michael Smith and David McGoldrick, who started on debut on Sunday after netting 15 League One goals last term and 66 over the last four seasons across England's third and fourth tiers.

He will be joined by either Smith or Tyler Roberts, while Owen Dodgson has since arrived this week and may make a debut on the left-hand side.

Doncaster Rovers are still without Francis Okoronkwo, who has been sidelined since January.

They have also seen several notable squad changes over the summer, with key man Luke Molyneux departing alongside Jordan Gibson, Billy Sharp, Ben Close, and James Maxwell, while the likes of James Husband, Tommy Simkin, Leon Ayinde, Jordan Thomas and Isaac Hutchinson have arrived to bolster the ranks.

Alfie May has also joined the Rovers, and he will lead their line again on Saturday having scored on debut last time out, with Ayinde, Thomas and Hutchinson all hoping to continue in a new-look supporting cast.

Mansfield Town possible starting lineup:

Lewis; Oshilaja, Sweeney, Blake-Tracy; Akins, Russell, Reed, Hendry, Dodgson; Roberts, McGoldrick

Doncaster Rovers possible starting lineup:

Simkin; Sterry, Byrne, McGrath, Senior; Bailey, Broadbent; Thomas, Hutchinson, Adelakun; May

We say: Mansfield Town 2-1 Doncaster Rovers

Saturday's game should be a tight one as both teams look to get up and running in League One, and despite the result in this fixture last season and their contrasting EFL Cup results, we give a slight edge to Mansfield Town with home advantage.

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