Mansfield Town reached the Third Round of the FA Cup for the sixth time in a dozen years (since the 2012/13 season) following a narrow, 1-0 win, away to fellow League One side, Stevenage Borough, at the weekend; they’ll now oppose fellow League One side, Wigan Athletic.
It took a volleyed effort, three minutes into the second half, to break down a resolute Stevenage side who, for the most of the first period, were well on top, and just lacked that finishing moment in front of Christy Pym’s goal.
A first half that was pretty much dominated by the hosts, Nigel Clough’s Stags’ first real effort coming eight minutes before the interval when Ben Waine’s right-footed effort, from outside the box, was saved well by Murphy Cooper, in the home goal.
Home midfielder Daniel Kemp, who started his youth career with London duo, Chelsea and West Ham United, was guilty of missing several chances in the opening thirty minutes or so, Pym on hand to stop a couple of those breaching his goal.
Even after Waine’s effort was saved, the hosts saw more chances go begging, Jake Young and Jordan Roberts seeing their efforts over Pym’s bar within a couple of minutes of each other.
The only goal of the game, and overall, against the run of play, arrived early in the second half, the Stags capitalising on consecutive corners, the first of which would see Murphy produce a great Save to prevent a header from Baily Cargill going in.
Then, from the resulting, second corner, and only partially headed clear, a headed knock-down from Cargill was connected beautifully by Stags’ Irish midfielder, Stephen McLaughlin, who hit a left-foot volley from the edge of the eighteen-yard box, through a melee of players, and down the middle of Murphy’s goal.
Both sides had chances to add to the games goal tally during the second period, both Jordan Bowery, and Lucas Akins, sending efforts wide after the hour, Akins doing so in the closing minutes, whilst Pym would save from Harvey White, and Ken Aboh would head wide himself late on.
The second period though was held up, on two occasions, for injuries to two of Clough’s players; Ben Quinn the first of those, the Stags using that opportunity to make a double change, whilst the second, in the closing minutes, saw Stephen Quinn replaced twenty minutes or so after he’d held up play for treatment also.
Mansfield though, they held on for a big, 1-0 win, halting their recent winless streak, and putting them into the next round of the cup (to be played weekend of 9-13 January), before which they have Bolton Wanderers (away, Tues 3 December), and Huddersfield Town (home, Sat 7 December), amongst other, League One fixtures, in which to contend with first.
MANSFIELD TOWN – Christy Pym, Ben Quinn (Will Evans 61), Jordan Bowery, Alfie Kilgour, Baily Cargill, Stephen McLaughlin, Kevin Baccus (Hiram Boateng 53), Louis Reed, Stephen Quinn (George Maris 86), Lucas Akins, Ben Waine (George Williams 61).
*Article provided by Peter Mann (Senior Correspondent).
*Main image @mansfieldtownfc Steven McLaughlin celebrates his winning goal.
