Mansfield Town secure battling point against Portsmouth

While Stags created few attacking chances, they showed exactly why they have one of the best defences in the division as Portsmouth struggled to break down a resolute Mansfield defence.

The Stags welcomed back captain Nicky Hunt to their starting line-up after his one match suspension following the red card he received against Bristol Rovers and Chris Clements also came into the starting 11.

Pompey started the game stronger and looked every inch a side battling for top spot in the division with Kyle Bennett going close in the third minute.

Proceedings continued to go the way of Pompey as Kal Naismith missed a couple of chances created by great link-up play between Michael Doyle in central midfield and full backs Ben Davies and Enda Stevens out wide.

Mansfield were struggling in all departments, but most criminal was ball retention as their passes kept getting picked off by the sea of home players stationed in the middle of the park.

It was poor tactics from visitors as they kept running into brick walls as Pompey closed in around them.

With the game’s pace slowing down, the Stags finally had a shot on goal in the 50th minute of the match as Adam Chapman slammed an effort from 25 yards out miles over.

After a quiet spell, Pompey started testing the Stags defence again in the second half and Davies nearly put them ahead with a screamingly good curling shot which Jensen had to push away.

The right back also had the crowd gasping as he sent a free kick from 25 yards out just wide.

With nine minutes remaining, the hosts thought they had finally broken the deadlock, but somehow a defender deflected Conor Chaplin’s shot in the six yard box wide.