Football round Up: Forest, Mansfield win, County fall to defeat

It was a mixed weekend for Nottingham’s football clubs with Nottingham Forest and Mansfield Town claiming important victories – but Notts County slid further down the table after a third consecutive loss.

It was a crucial weekend for all three teams as Forest started life under Dougie Freedman, Mansfield were desperate to climb away from the relegation zone and County looked to halt a slide.

Here’s what happened.

Forest-1

After a week which saw one former Forest player, Stuart Pearce, replaced by another, Dougie Freedman, as manager, a win away to Brighton and Hove Albion was a much needed tonic.

Freedman took over the reigns with the club in 12th place in the Championship, just seven points above the relegation zone, and it was clear a win was desperately needed.

The 3-2 victory at Brighton was anything but straight forward with goals from Danny Collins, Henri Lansbury and Ben Osborn just enough to pick up the victory.

Forest’s next three games are against teams below them in the league so they will be looking to further stretch the gap before looking ahead to potential play-off places.

Notts County

However, proceedings didn’t go as well for city neighbours County who slipped to their third consecutive defeat, losing 1-0 at home to Chesterfield.

The home side were undone by debutant Caolan Lavery’s second half goal in a game which was dominated by the quality of goal keepers Roy Carroll and Tommy Lee.

Despite now lying 16th in League One, County are not out of play-off contention as they remain just five points behind sixth-placed Oldham, and seven points clear of the relegation zone.

Mansfield Town

Mansfield Town are moving in the opposite direction to County as their first win in seven moved them out of the relegation zone and up to 20th in League Two.

A scrappy game saw the sides separated by substitute Reggie Lambe who was on hand to smash a volley into the net just five minutes after coming on.

The win leaves them two points above the drop and manager Adam Murray will hope his players kick on in the following weeks.