Fornah dropped and Eaves injured as Calderwood explains reason for six subs

Neither man featured at the One Call Stadium as Cobblers succumbed to their latest defeat in an increasingly grim 2026, with Calderwood confirming afterwards: "Tom’s got a little knock so he had to be left out and Ty was just a selection decision.”

Both Cobblers and Mansfield made six subs in Saturday’s game after Town skipper Jon Guthrie came off at half-time with concussion. Both teams are granted an extra substitute if a player is forced off with head-related injury.

Calderwood explained: "Jon Guthrie took a knock to the head just prior to half-time and he didn’t feel great when he came in. We felt we might as well use it (concussion sub) because he obviously wasn’t right and he was one of the ones who felt very heavy-legged. He wouldn’t have been able to play for long in the second half anyway.

"Elliott’s just coming back and he went really tight in his hamstring so we had to get him off and it was a very makeshift back four at the end.”

On whether he could find any positives on what was another bleak day, Calderwood added: “I like the tenacity of (Jack) Perkins and (Kyle) McAdam and the influence of Michael Jacobs is good and he was bright to get us going for our goal, but the defence just looked heavy-legged against them and their changes gave them energy all over the pitch. They certainly had a different profile of players in their front-line.”