Strong Stags reserves out to sink Mariners

After sending a youth team for last week’s reserves fixture at Port Vale, manager Steve Evans will use today’s clash to top up on vital minutes for all his fringe players for the big run-in ahead.

He said: “Those that have been on our bench will play, those who are trying to break into our first team, those who have been in and have dropped out will all play. It will be a strong side.

“I would expect our captain (Zander Diamond) to play because he needs some minutes on the pitch.

“I would expect the likes of Hayden White to play, John Hunt for sure, Paul Digby, Joel Byrom – I could keep going. We’ll certainly have Lee Angol and Omari Sterling-James out there, and Matt Penney will need some minutes.

“We’ll decide on Will Atkinson and Jimmy Spencer later.

“We need get minutes into one or two of them so this reserve game comes at the right time.”

Evans is expecting caretaker boss Paul Wilkinson to get the nod for the Grimsby job and said: “I assume that if Paul gets the job he will want some players to get some minutes and he will want to look at one or two things. So I am expecting them to be a bit stronger.

“But it doesn’t matter who we play against. It’s just important our players play competitive games.”

Grimsby today announced they would be sending a largely youthful side, though Sean McAllister, Jack Keeble and Tom Sawyer will also be included in the starting line-up.