Two automatic promotion spots remain up for grabs in League Two after Lincoln City secured theirs last week. The race for those places remains wide open, though, with just three games to go after both MK Dons and Mansfield Town capitalised on Bury’s slip-up by winning their games.
League Two Promotion Race Wide Open After Wins for MK Dons and Mansfield Town
Mansfield Strengthen Grip After Mauling Morecambe
Mansfield’s good season continued as four different scorers found the net in their rout of Morecambe. Jacob Mellis drilled the Stags in front for the only goal of the first half, and the goals dried up until the end when they once again came alive.
Krystian Pearce steered home a low finish on 70 minutes, CJ Hamilton fired in three minutes later and Malvind Benning’s 25-yard effort went in at the near post to round off the scoring.
Two of Mansfield’s three remaining games come away from home, with Stevenage being the last visitors to Field Mill this season on April 27. Their next fixture is away to Oldham Athletic before travelling to closest rivals MK Dons on the final day.
Remaining games: Oldham Athletic (A), Stevenage (H), MK Dons (A)
MK Dons Back into Automatic Spots With Win at Struggling Notts County
Paul Tisdale’s MK Dons maintained the pressure on the other automatic promotion hopefuls after two second-half goals helped them to victory over bottom side Notts County.
Defeat away at Tranmere Rovers last week looked to have put a massive dent in the Dons’ hopes, especially as it helped Rovers to close the gap on them to just one point in the table.
After a goalless first half at Meadow Lane, though, Queens Park Rangers loanee David Wheeler headed in the second goal of his spell with the Buckinghamshire side when he met Dean Lewington’s in-swinging corner just past the hour mark.
The game wore on and it looked as though the single strike was going to be enough, but substitute Chuks Aneke made sure of the points with another wonderful solo goal, following on from the one against Yeovil Town a few weeks ago. Receiving the ball on the halfway line, Aneke powered forward, placing the ball past the defender before destroying him for pace and then finishing high above Ryan Schofield.
A Ben Barclay header in the fourth minute of stoppage time got the hosts on the scoresheet, but it was too little too late and MK Dons marched into the top three once again.
Remaining games: Port Vale (H), Colchester United (A), Mansfield Town (H)
Bury Slip Up to Allow Chasers Back In
Nicky Maynard’s 20th goal of the season wasn’t enough to keep Bury in the automatic spots, despite being second at the start of play.
Jason Demetriou managed to give Newport County the lead after five minutes only for Maynard to reach his goal milestone two minutes later.
By the 13th minute, the Exiles were back in front via Jamille Matt and Newport looked to be in control again.
Bury huffed and puffed, but Demetriou’s second with 15 minutes to go ended any hopes they had of obtaining at least a point and they now sit fourth in the table.
Remaining games: Northampton Town (H), Tranmere Rovers (A), Port Vale (H)
Outsiders
Tranmere may sit four points shy of Bury, but the Shakers are only a point off MK Dons themselves, so there’s every reason to believe Micky Mellon’s side are still in this race.
That is despite losing at home to another play-off contender in Forest Green Rovers. Junior Mondal’s stunning goal two minutes into the second half was the only goal at Prenton Park, putting to waste all of the hard work Rovers had produced against MK Dons the previous week.
Forest Green did their own hopes no damage at all with that result and now sit only a point behind Tranmere courtesy of that win, and could still finish as high as second, mathematically.
The best anyone after that can hope for, though, is a play-off spot, such is the five-point gap between Forest Green and Exeter City, who occupy the final place for the play-offs. Also aiming to make a late run for that position are Carlisle United, Colchester, Stevenage and Newport.
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