Season 12/13 Stagsnet Match Report
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Matlock Town
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Mansfield Town
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McMahon 51, McDonald 90+2.
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Daniel 21. Roberts sent off 77.
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Attendance: 758 (approx 350 from Mansfield)
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Date: 27 November 2012
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STAGS EMBARRASED BY MATLOCK
Martin Shaw at Causeway Lane Mansfield Town were knocked out of the FA Trophy by Matlock Town, from the Northern Premier League, two leagues below Mansfield, in one of the most embarrassing results in the club’s history. The Stags were awful on Saturday in the first game, and were much improved in the first half at Causeway Lane, thoroughly deserving a half time lead by a great free kick from Junior Daniel on 21 minutes. The first half superiority was highlighted by Mansfield’s ten corners to Matlock’s one. But the second half was poor from Mansfield, and Matlock equalised on 51 minutes through Lewis McMahon who bundled in a cross from Massiah McDonald. Neither side created a chance worthy of the name after that and the game was nailed on for extra time, until Gary Roberts, returning to the side, picked up a stupid second yellow card on 77 minutes. Matlock suddenly got the bit between their teeth, and hit the bar twice, on 85 and 89 minutes, before Massiah McDonald battled his way past Geohaghon in stoppage time and his soft shot somehow crept under Redmond into the net. Neither Geohaghon nor Redmond could be happy with that. Daniel nearly rescued Mansfield with a brilliant shot that flashed just wide shortly afterwards, but the final whistle brought jubilant celebrations from the home fans. Clearly the FA Trophy is not, and should not be, as high a priority as the FA Cup and Paul Cox’s decision to rest key players like Lindon Meikle, Chris Clements and Adam Murray was justified ahead of the FA Cup tie at Lincoln on Saturday. However Cox will know that he cannot afford for his team to be as careless as this and go out of the FA Cup as well at Lincoln. Report and ratings when I’ve recovered from the six and a half hour journey that it took me to get to the game, arriving just ten minutes before kick off, thanks to a stray pig on the M1, followed by the embarrassment on the pitch. Mansfield made six changes from the first game. In came Todd, Howell, Roberts, Daniel, Rhead and Speight. They replaced Briscoe, Murray, Clements, Meikle, Hutchinson and Green. I was concerned to see the central defensive pairing of Jones and Geohaghon after their lack of pace had been exposed on Saturday by Lewis McMahon and Massiah McDonald. Man of the match: Junior Daniel |
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Report by: Martin Shaw at Causeway Lane
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Line Up:
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Redmond 5 Let the winning goal slide underneath him - a poor error in my opinion.
Thompson 5.5 Did ok in the first half, poor in the second half and caught out of position. Jones 5 Central defensive pairing was exposed for lack of pace, as it was on Saturday. Geohaghon 5 Caught out a few times. Poor game. Sutton 6 Did ok. Todd 6 Got stuck in and covered a lot of ground. Howell 6 OK, put in a decent shift. Roberts 5 Ten corners in the first half, of mixed quality. Looked off the pace. Should have been given a reserve game before returning to the fray. Late with challenges in the second half, and stupidly picked up a second yellow card. Daniel 6.5 Superb goal from free kick and so close to a dramatic injury time equaliser. In between, he didn’t get involved enough. Rhead 5 Did ok in the first half, very poor in the second. Speight 6 A couple of decent efforts in the first half, one of which was very well saved. |
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Sub Line Up:
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Green (for Speight, 64) -
Subs not used: Pilkington, Murray, Stevenson, Wright. |
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Opposition Line Up:
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Kennedy; Harcourt (Foster 90+2), Grayson, Yates, Roe; Lukic, Cotton (Leesley 90+4), Ashmore, Davis; McDonald, McMahon. Subs not used: Dennis, Travis, Leese.
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Referee:
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Darren Handley (Lancashire)
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