Checkatrade EFL Trophy Group G
at Field Mill/One Call Stadium
Mansfield Town (0) 1
Zander Diamond 81
Everton (0) 0
Admission £10. Programme £1.50.
Attendance 964 inc. 36 away fans
Prior to tonight, the Everton U23 team had lost both of their previous games in this competition 2-1, away from home, at Meadow Lane and Sincil Bank respectively.
Lincoln host County on Tuesday November 7th in the final Group G game.
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| The Checkatrade Trophy |
After sixteen league games, it would be fair to say that Mansfield need a spark (or a massive earth shattering explosion) to ignite their season, which hasn't yet justified either the bookies August hype and 'title favourites' odds, or the supporters more realistic expectations of finishing the season in a play off place.
But, there are still thirty league games left to play and Coventry and Wycombe, in sixth and seventh place respectively, are still only five points ahead of the Stags.
But the main stumbling block could be the calibre of several other big hitters among the chasing pack, lurking with intent, between fourteenth and the lottery of a play off finale to the season, who are still going to have a significant say in how the remainder of the campaign pans out.
The Stags manager showed yesterday that he is a football man through and through: when, upon hearing that Clipstone FC had had their premises vandalised over the weekend, he rang them personally and offered to send a Stags side across for a fundraising friendly match.
What a great gesture, smack bang in the middle of a really busy time at the club. I can't commend 'the gaffer' enough for that.
Respect is due too, among the football family of the local non league fraternity, who have offered all manner of financial and hands on assistance to Clipstone FC. There are too many of them to list here, but I wasn't surprised that Maltby Main's chairman, Wilf Race, was among the first to offer a lump sum and a team of club volunteers to help out with the tidy up job at the Worksop Van Hire Stadium. I don't always agree with Mr Race and I'm quite sure that the feeling is mutual, but he's a top man is Wilf... and I've got 'nowt but respect for him and the way that he conducts himself.
Clipstone (and lets not forget Rainworth Miners Welfare too) have been fantastic hosts whenever the Stags U18, U19 and U21 sides have needed somewhere to play, so it's fantastic news that Mansfield Town can find the time to help out the Cobras in their hour of need.
The game will take place on Tuesday 28th November 2017, with a kick off time of 7pm.
Furthermore, back on the subject of this season: though I accept that Rome wasn't built in a day (and lets face facts, that wasn't nearly half a big a job as salvaging Mansfield Town out of the mangled wreckage it had become not so long ago); without any shadow of a doubt, right here, right now, is the time to get the bricks and mortar added to the framework and foundations that are obviously already in place, without any further delay and as a matter of no small urgency, before the Stags start lagging too far behind all of the other teams with similar aspirations, until they've left it too late to play catch up for another season.
The rank and file supporters at Field Mill are a loyal bunch, but I think it might be pushing just one too many of few people's patience buttons, once too often, if this 2017-18 campaign of great promise, turns out to be yet another transitional year... just saying.
What a great gesture, smack bang in the middle of a really busy time at the club. I can't commend 'the gaffer' enough for that.
Respect is due too, among the football family of the local non league fraternity, who have offered all manner of financial and hands on assistance to Clipstone FC. There are too many of them to list here, but I wasn't surprised that Maltby Main's chairman, Wilf Race, was among the first to offer a lump sum and a team of club volunteers to help out with the tidy up job at the Worksop Van Hire Stadium. I don't always agree with Mr Race and I'm quite sure that the feeling is mutual, but he's a top man is Wilf... and I've got 'nowt but respect for him and the way that he conducts himself.
The game will take place on Tuesday 28th November 2017, with a kick off time of 7pm.
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| Clipstone v Mansfield Town XI - July 2026 |
The rank and file supporters at Field Mill are a loyal bunch, but I think it might be pushing just one too many of few people's patience buttons, once too often, if this 2017-18 campaign of great promise, turns out to be yet another transitional year... just saying.
Yet, when all is said and done, there is still a 'showpiece' Wembley final at stake, for the clubs who are competing for this trophy, and a grand total of 74,434 people attended last season's 'climax' game, between Coventry City and Oxford United. That said, tonight's paltry attendance of 964 was the second lowest ever recorded for a 'competitive' game at Field Mill, but there is a really intriguing plot unfolding on Hollyoaks at the moment, so you can't blame people for staying at home in the warmth, now that the nights are drawing in and Winter is upon us.
To be fair to the Stags manager, in the run up to tonight's game he said that there would be wholesale changes in his squad and starting line up, whilst commenting: "We'd rather progress than not progress, but it's just not a priority".
But football is a horses for courses squad game nowadays, so last Saturday's starting eleven against Exeter and/or tonight's line up, might not offer even the most bijou of clues as to who will be making the team sheet for this weekend's potential banana skin of a game in northernmost Barnsley.
By the way, I'm very happy to report that I finally managed to bag myself a ticket for Saturday's game late yesterday afternoon.
Franny Jeffers is the academy coach at Everton. I can recall seeing him score at Upton Park on the occasion of his only appearance for the England first team, on a night that Sven-Goran Eriksson's team lost 1-3 against Australia. Jermaine Jenas and Wayne Rooney. Jeffers was an Arsenal player then. As his career did a Jamie Vardy in reverse about turn, a few years later I watched him playing for Sheffield Wednesday reserves against Walsall's stiffs at Stocksbridge Park Steels ground. After the game, he was having problems with the locking mechanism on his top of the range Audi in the Bracken Moor car park, where to compound his frustrations somebody shouted: "A real Scouser wouldn't have any trouble getting into a car!" It probably wasn't the high point of his topsy turvy playing career, that had started so well when he crashed onto the scene as a youngster. Jeffers is still the record joint top goal scorer for England Under 21 team, an accolade he shares with Alan Shearer, having netted 13 goals in 16 games.
Without wanting to sound condescending, Everton's development side were lightweight and well off of the mark of what you'd expect from a Premier League sides Academy system. I was nonplussed and dismayed at the manner in which they were crumpling and going to ground under even the most innocuous of challenges.
If first impressions are anything to go by; and I certainly wouldn't be in any kind of hurry to give them a second coat of looking at, you would have to say in all honesty, that the young Toffees probably only have a few outfield players who you could say were above average, but they didn't have enough in their arsenal to carry the rest of team.
Granted, in spite of the eleven changes that Mansfield had made to Saturday's first picks, the hosts had fielded a far stronger side than I'd been anticipating, but they made Jeffers youngsters look very ordinary. And that is a very generous overview of their collective poor performance.
If first impressions are anything to go by; and I certainly wouldn't be in any kind of hurry to give them a second coat of looking at, you would have to say in all honesty, that the young Toffees probably only have a few outfield players who you could say were above average, but they didn't have enough in their arsenal to carry the rest of team.
Granted, in spite of the eleven changes that Mansfield had made to Saturday's first picks, the hosts had fielded a far stronger side than I'd been anticipating, but they made Jeffers youngsters look very ordinary. And that is a very generous overview of their collective poor performance.
Yet although the Stags were in control of the game and never looked in any doubt of losing at any point, the final ball and killer touch just wouldn't come for them. That said, Louis Gray, the Everton keeper made a string of good saves, that kept the misfiring Stags at bay a few times
A 3-0 win would've guaranteed safe passage out of the group stages for Evans' side, but a single goal in now means that we'll have to be on standby with an abacus, pocket calculator and a wide margin to do some long division in on Tuesday night.
Or you could just leave all of the maths to the Stagsnet mainstay Mr Martin Shaw and click HERE; he's really good at sums and getting down to the nitty gritty of such things.
Bobby Olejnik saved well from Antony Evans during the opening exchanges, turning the ball behind for a corner, but Luke Garbutt wasted the resulting flag kick.
The Stags first opportunity fell to Lee Angol, but though he put a lot of power into his twelve yard strike from Calum Butcher's lay off his shot whistled over the bar.
Or you could just leave all of the maths to the Stagsnet mainstay Mr Martin Shaw and click HERE; he's really good at sums and getting down to the nitty gritty of such things.
Bobby Olejnik saved well from Antony Evans during the opening exchanges, turning the ball behind for a corner, but Luke Garbutt wasted the resulting flag kick.
The Stags first opportunity fell to Lee Angol, but though he put a lot of power into his twelve yard strike from Calum Butcher's lay off his shot whistled over the bar.
The Everton keeper displayed good positional awareness when he moved quickly to punch away Alfie Potter's thirty five yard free kick, readjusting himself to gather Will Atkinson's strike as he collected the loose ball and let fly.
Omari-Sterling James, one of the Stags better players on the night in my humble opinion, saw his free kick skim high and wide off the Everton defensive wall, after Jimmy Spencer had been tripped twenty away from the visitors goal.
Bassala Sambou, the Toffee's number 44, was chasing every pass to Olejnik and attempted clearance by the Stags keeper down, but though he was making all the right runs and gambling on getting some scraps to feed from, his efforts were all in vain.
Sterling-James made himself another chance, but Gray read the flight of the ball well and saved again.
HT: Stags 0 v Toffees 0
Omari-Sterling James, one of the Stags better players on the night in my humble opinion, saw his free kick skim high and wide off the Everton defensive wall, after Jimmy Spencer had been tripped twenty away from the visitors goal.
Bassala Sambou, the Toffee's number 44, was chasing every pass to Olejnik and attempted clearance by the Stags keeper down, but though he was making all the right runs and gambling on getting some scraps to feed from, his efforts were all in vain.
Sterling-James made himself another chance, but Gray read the flight of the ball well and saved again.
HT: Stags 0 v Toffees 0
Just an observation to consider; though Alfie Potter impresses me when he does the simple stuff well, like acting as a link man, providing goal scoring opportunities and weighing in with a few cracks at goal himself, but when he occasionally over complicates things and attempts to add a few intricate moments, he's more messy than Messi.
Potter and Sterling-James both had good chances to break the deadlock, but fired wide of either post respectively, while Butcher thumped the ball into the bar into the vacant Quarry Lane End from Spencer's knockdown as we all began to wonder if this game was heading for a goalless draw.
Mansfield were camping out across the visitors last third, but clear cut chances were few and far between and the final ball was going begging way too often.
Dennis Adenrian launched a long ball to Fraser Hornby, who cut into the left hand side of the Stags area and squared a pass to Sambou, who fell over as he teed up his shot and was substituted moments later.
Potter and Sterling-James both had good chances to break the deadlock, but fired wide of either post respectively, while Butcher thumped the ball into the bar into the vacant Quarry Lane End from Spencer's knockdown as we all began to wonder if this game was heading for a goalless draw.
Mansfield were camping out across the visitors last third, but clear cut chances were few and far between and the final ball was going begging way too often.
Dennis Adenrian launched a long ball to Fraser Hornby, who cut into the left hand side of the Stags area and squared a pass to Sambou, who fell over as he teed up his shot and was substituted moments later.
Potter picked out Spencer at the back post from a long corner, but his crashing shot was blocked a few feet away from the visitors goal line... and Potter was involved again moments later, forcing a good reaction save from Gray. Angol and Spencer combined well and released Sterling-James, but his angled shot was hooked away with Gray, for once, caught out of position and stranded.
Mansfield were definitely in the ascendancy, as Everton showed very little in the way of creativity as the clock ticked down, but it took until the eighty first minute, before the home side forced the issue, when Zander Diamond forced the ball over the line with a close range header from Potter's excellent delivery from a corner.
Spencer and stoppage time substitute CJ Hamilton, both drilled efforts wide of the target late one, with Hamilton seeing another shot actually going so awry from the right hand side of the area, that it went out for a throw in on the opposite side of the pitch.
And that was that.
FT: Mansfield Town 1 v Everton U21 0
Mansfield were definitely in the ascendancy, as Everton showed very little in the way of creativity as the clock ticked down, but it took until the eighty first minute, before the home side forced the issue, when Zander Diamond forced the ball over the line with a close range header from Potter's excellent delivery from a corner.
Spencer and stoppage time substitute CJ Hamilton, both drilled efforts wide of the target late one, with Hamilton seeing another shot actually going so awry from the right hand side of the area, that it went out for a throw in on the opposite side of the pitch.
And that was that.
FT: Mansfield Town 1 v Everton U21 0
The side that Everton sent across were very disappointing on the night and rode their luck several times, and a more focused Stags team, with more of a cutting edge in and around the visitors area, would've won by a far more convincing margin.
A win's a win however and now we'll just have to wait and see what happened at Sincil Bank on Tuesday as Lincoln City and Notts County play out the final group game.
Who's up for a night out in Lincoln then?
Hmm, I thought not!
Footnote: Added Tuesday November 7th 2017
Lincoln beat County 2-1 in the final group game; which means the Stags finished second in Group G and will subsequently be away in their next Checkatrade Trophy game, against one of the following: Blackpool, Bury, Carlisle United, Fleetwood Town, Port Vale or Rochdale. The draw to determine which of these sides Mansfield will be travelling to, will be made at 6.30pm on Friday 10th November 2017
Footnote: Added Tuesday November 7th 2017
Lincoln beat County 2-1 in the final group game; which means the Stags finished second in Group G and will subsequently be away in their next Checkatrade Trophy game, against one of the following: Blackpool, Bury, Carlisle United, Fleetwood Town, Port Vale or Rochdale. The draw to determine which of these sides Mansfield will be travelling to, will be made at 6.30pm on Friday 10th November 2017
