Mansfield Town 3-1 Cheltenham Town (EFL League Two) 09.03.21

The Stags wobbled the Robins on their perch at the top of the League Two table last night as Nigel Clough’s Mansfield Town in a run of poor form of late, came from behind to beat table topping Cheltenham Town at Field Mill.

“It was our night” said a delighted Clough after, having previously seen his side lose five of their most recent six matches, a win against the best team in the league helping the Stags reach the 40 point mark after 33 games. Mansfield now eleven points clear of the drop zone with a game in hand on Southend United in 23rd, a couple more wins will make it a comfortable end to the season with a view to build on the next campaign, as following recent results, Mansfield are now a way off from any chance of promotion.

Both sides had chances in a stalemate first half, Bowery firing low and hard at the goalkeeper after Ollie Clarke crossed into him with Griffiths making a good stop at his near post, Cheltenham actually had the ball in the net but the flag was raised for Sam Smith standing in an offside position.

Early second half saw all the goal action as Cheltenham came out from their cuppas with intent to take the lead. Hussey crossing left footed for Smith to head home on 51, it looked to be ‘same old’ as the Stags fell behind for a third game in a row but just four minutes later the game was back level, Josh Law pulling back to Jordan Bowery who fired in from the edge of the area.

That goal gave the Stags hope and on 63 minutes a Josh Law corner caused mayhem in the box, Jamie Reid scrambling home from close range and with tails well and truly up, the Stags went further afield when Bowery muscled past four players to play a one-two with Reid before calmly slotting home past the goalkeeper.

Manager Clough said after “We’ve had some good performances of late, despite not getting the results, but it was all there tonight.”

“We should have been ahead at half-time, we hit the post and should’ve scored. We restricted them to very little.”

“But the most pleasing thing was, having gone behind in the second-half, to respond in the way that we did was unbelievably pleasing and promising, and showed character.”

Next up for Stags is a trip to Crawley Town on Saturday.

Mansfield Town: Stech, Gordon, Rawson, Perch, Benning, McLaughlin, Clarke (Lapslie 73), Quinn (Charsley 88), Law, Reid, Bowery.

Cheltenham Town: Griffiths, Raglan (Vassilev 76), Tozer, Long, Blair, Wright (Azaz 60), Thomas, Sercombe (Lloyd 90), Hussey, Smith, May.

Venue: Field Mill

*Main image @mansfieldtownfc Jamie Reid celebrates his goal against Cheltenham.