Mansfield Town 2 Shrewsbury Town 1

Bacon 69, Greenacre 90.   Rodgers 8

Friday 14th September 2001 - Kick off 7.45pm

Nationwide League Division 3

Attendance:  4, 759

Martin Shaw at Field Mill

Mansfield Town soared into second place in the Third Division with another late, late winner at a jubilant Field Mill tonight. For the third time in the 7 games played this season, Stags won with a goal inside the closing moments. This time it was Chris Greenacre who sealed victory, with a spectacular overhead kick in the first minute of injury time.

Stags were unchanged from the side that had beaten Lincoln, with Pemberton retaining his place in the side, and Tankard on the bench.

The game started disastrously for Mansfield when on just 7 minutes, Disley tried to head a ball back to Pilkington, but Shrewsbury striker Luke Rogers sneaked in to intercept the ball and slot home from a tight angle. Stags continued to look very hesitant at the back as both Robinson and Reddington were nearly caught out. Shrewsbury had started well and profited from running hard and chasing loose balls down.

Gradually Stags regained composure and started to get back into the game for the last 20 minutes of the half. But chances were few and far between, and the best chance for Stags fell to Andy White, who headed a corner powerfully towards goal, but unfortunately straight at the keeper. Greenacre also had one chance, when he fired into the side netting following a cleverly worked corner, and Corden was narrowly over from a free-kick.

In the second half, Mansfield started to dominate possession but still failed to create the number of chances that they had in previous matches. Greenacre had his second chance of the night when put through on the left, but scuffed his shot from 20 yards. The game started to turn in Mansfield’s favour when Danny Bacon replaced an injured Andy White. On 68 minutes, Stags were level, when Hassell put in a fine cross that Danny Bacon dived full length to head into the bottom right hand corner of the net. Bacon showed his delight by ripping off his shirt and celebrating with a fuller than usual North Stand. Stags poured forward and looked the likelier side to score a winner. Stags seemed certain to score on 85 minutes when Corden burst through the middle but pulled his shot wide from 20 yards, with Danny Bacon totally unmarked to his left. Then the home fans were screaming for a penalty when Lawrence battled his was into the area and was clearly pushed down but incredibly the referee, who was superbly positioned, waved play on. The board went up for 3 minutes of stoppage time, but within a minute Stags had once again found a late winner. And again it was fully deserved. Corden crossed from the left, Bacon headed the ball back across goal, and Greenacre produced a stunning overhead kick to power the ball home from close range. Greenacre celebrated by charging 50 yards before diving to his knees in front of an adoring West Stand. There was time for one Shrewsbury attack which didn’t make it into the area. As the clock wound down, Greenacre was free in yards of space and seemed certain to score with a free run on goal, but the final whistle had gone, and the Stags fans, bench and players were left to celebrate the win.

This was another entertaining game, though without the glut of chances produced in previous games. Stags left it late again but deserved the win on the balance of play against a Shrewsbury side that showed enough to make you think that they could be in for a good season.

A tremendous turnout of home fans in a crowd of 4,759, with only about 300 from Shrewsbury. They will have gone home happy and hopefully will return over and over again.

Man of the Match: Liam Lawrence.
Pilkington 6, Hassell 7, Robinson 6, Reddington 5, Pemberton 7, Lawrence 8,   Williamson 6, Disley 6, Corden 7, Greenacre 7, White 6.
Subs: Bacon (for White, 50 mins) 8, Asher (for Disley, 84 mins).
Subs Not Used: Bingham, Tankard, Williams.
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Ratings by Neil Shaw

Man of the Match: Liam Lawrence.

Pilkington 6 Very little to do, and what he had to do, he did competently.

Hassell 6 Exposed by the pace of Shrewsbury’s left side on a couple of occasions, but apart from that a solid performance.

Robinson 6 Some key interceptions but looked hesitant early on.

Reddington 5 Some suicidal balls from the back nearly resulted in disaster. Must learn not to dwell on the ball in dangerous areas.

Pemberton 6 A competent performance, joined up with the attack well on one or two occasions.

Lawrence 7 Got better as the game progressed and showed good touches on the wing, and in the second half hassled the defence into errors.

Williamson 6 One or two nice passes, a fairly solid performance in the middle without being inspiring. Caught in possession on a few occasions.

Disley 6 A quiet game, one of his poorer performances this season.

Corden 7 Showed some skilful touches, particularly in the second half.

Greenacre 7 Worked tirelessly, didn’t have as many chances as usual but came up trumps at the end.

White 6 Worked hard, laid the ball off nicely, but a bit cumbersome and predictable.

Subs:

Bacon (for White, 50 mins) 7 Some intelligent touches, and no coincidence that Stags improved considerably when he came on. Scored the first and made the second.

Asher (for Disley, 84 mins) 6 Solid.

Subs Not Used: Bingham, Tankard, Williams.

Shrews: Cartwright , Drysdale , Redmile , Wilding , Rioch , Heathcote , Aiston , Atkins , Jagielka , Rodgers (Lowe 71) , Jemson.  Subs not used:  Tretton , Moss , Murray , Hart

Referee:  M Clattenburg