Season 07/08 Stagsnet Match Report
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Shrewsbury Town
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Mansfield Town
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Mullins sent off 45+10
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Attendance: 5347 (399 from Mansfield)
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Date: 27 October 2007
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REPORT BY SEAN THE MAD STAG AT THE NEW MEADOW STADIUM
10 MAN STAGS HOLD SHREWS Out with the old & in with the new for Mansfield Town FC’s first visit to Shrewsbury Town’s New Meadow Stadium. The Stadium itself is an excellent set-up with a wide pitch, shame about the infrastructure around the ground with car parking being made very difficult near the ground unlike at Gay Meadow. Stags were unchanged, fresh from the bragging rights of putting one over on the Old Pensioners of Mardy Lane, thanks to Stephen Dawson passing a fitness test. There was “a round of applause” tribute following the death of a Shrewsbury Town Cameraman, who died earlier this month. This was immaculately observed both sets of players & fans alike. FIRST HALF Stags kitted out in an all amber kit, kicked off the game, defending the North Stand end, where the 399 Stags fans were congregated. Autumn is definitely here, because the floodlights were fully on from the start. The first shot at goal came from Bell in the very first minute, a 25 yard snap shot, which flew harmlessly wide of Garner’s left hand post. Referee Paul Melin (Surrey), in my opinion more like Roger Mellie the Man on the Telly from Viz for the way he officiated the game, brandished a yellow card to Johnny Mullins in the 3rd minute for a rash, but rather innocuous, challenge. The resulting free kick was fired in the from Shrewsbury’s left wing to the far side of Stags penalty area, where Mickey Boulding blocked the ball, resulting in him getting a bloody nose & following treatment had to swap his number 11 shirt for a blank numbered shirt. At this point the Stags fans started taunting the home fans in the West Stand with cries of “You’re Welsh & you know you are?” followed by a chorus of “Sheep sheep sheep s….gers” much to my amusement!! In the 5th minute Shrews won a throw in wide on their left wing almost level with Stags penalty area. David Hunt launched a long throw in right onto Hibbert’s head, who flashed his unmarked header wide of Muggo’s goal. By now referee Melin was showing his “homer” tendencies by giving Shrewsbury some bizarre decisions in their favour. The game ebbed & flowed from one end to the other. Some players found it hard to keep their footing on the greasy pitch, wrong choice of studs perhaps!! Another long throw from Hunt, which 95% of his throw ins were foul throws, due to his feet being over the line, was powered into the area & an amazing defensive diving header by Mullins cleared the danger out for a corner, which came to nothing. On 15 minutes a long punt up field to Mickey Boulding very nearly resulted in a goal, when he turned his marker & fired a rasping left shot narrowly wide of Garner’s right hand post. A couple minutes later Bucko was nearly caught out in defence after yet another long diagonal ball from Shrewsbury, excellent tracking back by Nathan Arnold helped his Captain out of a fix. Imagine my surprise when the Stags fans, lead by the Burberry clad Simmo I might add, started chanting “You’re just a team full of hoofers” & “Are you Lincoln in disguise” In the 28th minute Dan Martin fired a 30 yard shot high over Shrewsbury’s goal. A minute later a blatant elbow by Tierney on Hamshaw, lead to the Stags player being completely knocked out & laying face down near the halfway line. He was attended to by the Physio & St John’s Ambulance crew & taken off the pitch in a neck brace & on a spinal board straight into an awaiting Ambulance & taken to The Royal Shropshire Hospital. Much to my amazement referee Melin didn’t even talk to Tierney let alone show him a card!! In my opinion it was a straight red card offence. Gareth Jelleyman came on for Hamshaw. Jelley slotted in on the left of midfield with Arnold switching to the right. A couple of minutes later Jelleyman had a glorious chance to head Stags in front with more or less his first touch of the game from a right wing cross by Dan Martin. Shrewsbury’s style of play was that boring that it became very entertaining to count the number freight train carriages hurtling along the tracks behind the West Stand, one of which was 44 carriages long!!!!!!! The PA Announcer announced there would be NINE minutes of injury time, bizarrely sponsored by The West Bromwich Building Society!!! Who would want to sponsor an injury to a player???? Nathan Arnold was injured when again he tracked back defensively to help out his Captain. He carried on after treatment, but clearly looked like he could hardly walk let alone run. Johnny Mullins received his second yellow card of the game in the last minute of injury time for another innocuous challenge on Pugh, who dived brilliantly like a true Olympian, giving the ref no other alternative but to reduce Stags to 10 players. HALF TIME SHREWSBURY TOWN 0 MANSFIELD TOWN 0 SECOND HALF Both teams made halftime substitutions, Stags brought on Sean McAlister on for the injured Nathan Arnold. With Bell slotting in at right back, Brown going to right wing, McAllister in the centre midfield along side the very subdued Dawson, & Mickey Boulding ploughing a lone furrow upfront on his own. Shrewsbury gave a debut to the tricky ex-Darlo winger Neil Wainwright, who came on for long throw merchant Hunt. It was back to the wall stuff for the Stags defence as they were being bombarded by wave after wave of attacks from the Shrews. In the 51st minute a Shrewsbury left wing cross found Wainwright totally unmarked on the right hand side of the Stags penalty area, he fired in a bullet of a shot, only for Carl Muggleton to produce an amazing save to stop an almost certain goal, which sparked an almighty scramble & a header from Hibbert was acrobatically stopped again by Muggleton. The follow up header was excellently headed off the goal line by Lee Bell. This prompted the Stags fans to sing “We love you Mansfield we do” at the top of their voices. Stags limited themselves to the quick counter attacking football after withstanding the first 15 minutes of constant Shrewsbury pressure. On the hour mark a good interchange of passes between Brown, McAllister & Boulding lead to McAllister being totally upended, which infuriated one quick witted Stags fan sitting near me, who shouted to the ref “Give him a yellow card NOT a Christmas card”!!!! A minute later another bizarre incident occurred when a linesman flagged for a Stags free kick, he was given a mouthful by one of the Shrewsbury’s substitutes, who were warming up behind him. The ref went over & booked the sub (Hall). All the lucky bounces & ricochets seemed to be going all Shrewsbury’s way. On 72 minutes a misunderstanding in the Shrewsbury defence very nearly let Brownie & Boulding into score, but the ball bounced harmless wide & yet another chance to nick a win had gone begging. Shrewsbury Manager Gary Peters signalled his intentions to win the game by taking off central defender Kempson for Symes a striker with 13 minutes of the game left. 5 minutes later in the 82nd minute a Shrewsbury free kick was hoofed into the Stags penalty box & clearly struck Alex John-Baptiste on the hand & much to my amazement was missed by the referee. As the game petered out news was filtering through that Lincoln & Wrexham had lost & we would be off the bottom & extend our unbeaten run to 3 games, if we could keep it at nil nil. 4 minutes of injury time was announced, which went by without much incident, with the exception of Muggleton being booked for time wasting (Top Lad) & Danny Sleath coming on for Dan Martin for the final minute. All in all an excellent result by the lads & they all came over to the fans & applauded them. FINAL SCORE SHREWSBURY TOWN 0 MANSFIELD TOWN 0 MOTM: CARL MUGGLETON |
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Report by: Sean Beastall at the New Meadow
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Line Up:
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Muggleton – 9 outstanding performance
Mullins – 4 red card nearly lost the game for the team Buxton – 7 looked laboured but withstood the onslaught John-Baptiste – 8 very solid in defence Martin – 7 another good performance at left back Hamshaw – 5 played well before his injury Dawson – 7 quiet game but reliable as usual Bell – 8 great game & versatile Arnold – 6 did well until he got injured Brown – 6 lacked pace & was in & out of the game too much M.Boulding – 8 never stopped running all game |
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Sub Line Up:
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Jelleyman (for Hamshaw, 37 minutes) – 5 didn’t really get into the game
McAllister (for Arnold, 46 minutes) – 6 solid in centre midfield Sleath (for Martin 90+2, minutes) Subs not used: White, Holmes |
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Opposition Line Up:
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Garner, Herd, Murdock, Kempson (Symes 77), Tierney, Hunt (Wainwright 46), Drummond, Ashton, Pugh, Hibbert, Langmead. Subs Not Used: Nicholson, Hall, Esson.
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Referee:
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Paul Melin (Surrey) – 4 homer & very poor
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