Diamond comes through reserves defeat
A very experienced Mansfield Town reserves side were beaten 1-0 in their Central League opener at Rotherham United this afternoon.
Now Stags will be hoping skipper Zander Diamond has no adverse reaction to coming through a full 90 minutes after injury so he is available for the weekend.
New signing Calum Butcher also topped up his minutes after scoring as a second half substitute at Carlisle on his debut on Saturday.
Mansfield had four good penalty shouts turned down, three in the first half of the game.
So it was ironic that the winner came from the spot at the other end on 52 minutes, David Ball on target after he had been brought down by keeper Bobby Olejnik.
At one stage Alex MacDonald thought he had levelled but it was ruled out for offside.
ROTHERHAM: Bilboe, Atherton, Southern-Cooper, Onariase (Murr 81), Hinds, Wiles, Warren, Yates, Bray, Da Ball (James 72), Clarke-Harris. Subs not used: : McMahon, Martin, Mamboti-Mvumbi.
STAGS: Olejnik, White, Diamond, Digby, Hunt, Butcher (Ward 46), Thomas, Potter (Graham 62), MacDonald, Spencer, Sterling-James. Subs not used: Wilson, Wilder, N. Blake.