Marked for Stephen McLaughlin
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Feb 2027
Hugo Magallanes falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Julian Vazquez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad22 Feb 2027
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Liam Roberts knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Liam Roberts's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Match20 Feb 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Alexander Bailey was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Mansfield Town dressing room was either.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The team sheet said everything about Owen Dodgson
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Owen Dodgson.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Coventry City is saying, and nobody at Mansfield Town is enjoying the guessing.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Reece Cole falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Samuel Loric and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match16 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Match12 Jan 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Victor Adeboyejo. 1‑0 against Leyton Orient, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Liam Roberts gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Liam Roberts lets one through his hands
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
A one-man rearguard from Liam Roberts
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Louis Reed: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mansfield Town have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Tyler Roberts and Mansfield Town agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Mansfield Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Reece Cole is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match5 Dec 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Michael Smith. 1‑0 against Blackpool, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Ryan Sweeney in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mansfield Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A mark of 7.73, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Luke Bolton beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Alexander Bailey on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.04 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Reece Cole was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad19 Oct 2026
36 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.35 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 28 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Alexander Bailey on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.