Saturday 17th march 2018
SkyBet EFL League 2
The Matt Salmon Trophy
at Meadow Lane
Notts County (1) 1
Terry Hawkridge 35
Mansfield Town (0) 1
Kane Hemmings 90+9 pen
Admission £20. Programme £3
Attendance 12,563 (inc 4,164 Stags fans)
Adam Collin, Matt Tootle, Carl Dickinson, Elliott Hewitt, Richard Duffy (C), Shola Ameobi, Jorge Grant, Terry Hawkridge (Lewis Alessandra 81), Liam Noble (Alan Smith 90’), Ben Hall, Jon Stead
Unused subs - Ross Fitzsimons (GK), Matty Virtue, Shau Brisley, Noor Husin, Dan Jones
Mansfield Town:
Conrad Logan, Rhys Bennett, Rhys Benning, Krystian Pearce (C), Alex MacDonald, Paul Anderson (Paul Digby 90), Will Atkinson, CJ Hamilton, Kane Hemmings, Adam King (Lee Angol 61), Danny Rose
Unused subs - Bobby Olejnik (GK), Haydn White, Omari Sterling-James, Joel Byrom, Ricky Miller
Matt Salmon R.I.P.
Once again, the Matt Salmon Trophy was contested for, at this afternoon's game, in honour of the popular young former Notts County & Mansfield Town physio, who sadly died of cancer last May, aged just 25.Which hopefully puts anything else that occurred at Meadow Lane today into some kind of perspective.
Football is, was and always will be... a sporting contest and a game.
I'm sure that Alan Hardy's heartfelt and touching tribute to Matt in today's programme was greatly appreciated by all those of us who've had the pleasure of both knowing and working alongside 'Salmon'.
Blog report and overview of today's game and the events surrounding it:
I have just been laughing out loud so much on the way home that I have given myself stitch, while listening to the post match comments and blinkered assessment of this afternoon's game, as seen through the eyes of the Notts County manager Kevin Nolan.
Upon arriving back at my homestead, I now see that the Pies chairman has all but repeated Nolan's words verbatim, on his Twitter feed.
I have just been laughing out loud so much on the way home that I have given myself stitch, while listening to the post match comments and blinkered assessment of this afternoon's game, as seen through the eyes of the Notts County manager Kevin Nolan.
Upon arriving back at my homestead, I now see that the Pies chairman has all but repeated Nolan's words verbatim, on his Twitter feed.
Seriously, it needs to be asked, what vantage point have the pair of them been watching today's game from?
Were the frequent blizzards so bad, that the weather impaired and obscured their vision that much?
Perhaps they might have stayed out of the snow altogether and watched updates coming through on Ceefax in the Meadow Lane boardroom.
Hardy and Nolan have done a great job in turning County round from the car crash of a club that they had become, in the not so distant past, into serious League 2 promotion contenders... and much kudos and respect is due to them both for the way that they've tackled such an onerous task head on, and I tip my snow covered hat to them for their considerable achievements.
But today; well they made themselves look like a pair of in denial, spoilt kids denied sweetie rations, unable to accept and stubbornly denying the stonewall evidence and plain facts that were there for all to see. Apart from to those who were wearing blinkers (or maybe even a blindfold).
It is perfectly understandable, that in the heat of the moment of the immediate aftermath of seeing three points evaporate into one, after a home win had appeared to be nailed on, that anyone might blow a fuse a lash out verbally... but rules are rules, and we all have to abide by them.
The only winner this afternoon was the stop/start hideous weather, nobody deserved to win or lose this (s)crappy game of football, so it beggars belief that anybody would behave like a sore loser or get their knickers in a twist over a purported but non existent injustice.
If anybody is struggling to comprehend where all of the added on time came from, or more pertinently doesn't want to... the referee added thirty seconds per substitution, as per the rules of the game, and two of those substitutions were made after the initial (minimum of) seven minutes had been added on for stoppages and delays incurred on three separate occasions, when injured players were receiving treatment, namely: County's Jon Stead and the Mansfield pair of Danny Rose and Krystian Pearce, the latter of which was a particularly lengthy one and thankfully the injury turned out not to be as serious as it first looked.
Add on to that whatever the referee deemed to be time-wasting during 'injury time' and the frequent delays caused by Shola Ameobi confronting Mr Woolmer whenever he didn't like the outcome of any given decision and I reckon that the Stags manager David Flitcroft should actually be demanding to know why his side wasn't afforded even more time to finish the job off properly ;-)
I don't think that the referee had an especially good game, but then who did in these hideous conditions? However his questionable decisions didn't favour either side unduly... and yes! I did see the Stags second half substitute Lee Angol control the ball with both of his hands, but also spotted the wave to 'play on' when the same player had been blatantly flattened near the touchline in front of the Derek Pavis Stand moments later, that's the swings and roundabouts of association football.
Certain people have 'screamed and screamed and made themselves sick' in a manner that would have embarrassed Violet Elizabeth, as portrayed by the nauseatingly shrill Bonnie Langford in 'Just William' because the Stags equalised very late in the day after Lewis Alessandra had conceded a penalty when he handled the ball inside the visitors area. He was stood a fraction outside the eighteen yard box I grant you, but he reached the ball with an outstretched arm when it was in the area, and countless freeze frame, point of contact pictures and social media videos have proved beyond any reasonable doubt that the referee, who was much closer to the incident of his detractors, made the right decision.
And as a consequence I hereby take back anything derogatory that I might have said about Andy Woolmer.
Maybe the question that anybody connected with the home side should actually be asking, is: "Lewis my good man, why the effing hell did you handle the ball in full view of the referee, with only a few seconds of added time remaining?"
Hey you guys: 'Don't blame it on the sunshine. Don't blame it on the moonlight. Don't blame it on good times. Blame it on your own bloody daft number seven!'
Both sides had struggled to make any headway in a messy first half, as the weather conditions alternated regularly between being: very unpleasant, blizzadesque and nigh on impossible to play football in.
But Alex MacDonald lobbed the ball onto the roof of the Pies goal, and County's keeper Adam Collin did well to keep out a speculative effort by Danny Rose around the half hour mark... although I might have imagined it; because according to the Notts version of events their goalkeeper had nothing to do until the 97th minute.
However Nolan's side did probably shade the first half, or whatever actual football was played in it and when Terry Hawkridge forced the ball past Conrad Logan, after Ameobi's thumping header had spun into the air and dropped into the Stags six yard box from Carl Dicksinson's right wing corner, that had been awarded as a consequence of Conrad Logan turning an effort from Ameobi round the post with his legs just moments earlier.
So it was advantage Notts at half time and though the Stags pushed on gamely in worsening conditions and MacDonald supplied a constant string of ammunition from a wide position, including a string of corners, it looked as though the home side were going to grab a six point lead over their Nottinghamshire neighbours from up the A60 in the race for promotion. The scheduled 90 minutes came and went and County must've have thought that they had the game, the points and the league table bragging rights in the bag. No wonder they behaved with such OTT ungracious disappointment in the aftermath of conceding a late goal then. I'm sure that the 4,164 Stags fans who were in town for their annual booze up along the Waterfront would've been similarly gutted if the shoe had been on the other foot. But hey! It wasn't.
Deep, deeper and even more deeper into added time, Mal Benning delivered a corner into the County area, which Matt Tootle half cleared towards MacDonald who headed the ball back into the mix
but Alessandra prevented it going any further by sticking out his hand.
The Stags followers, most of who still hadn't left, cheered as though they had actually already scored. But I stood their crossing everything I had in the hope that Kane Hemmings was going to handle the pressure situation better than I was doing.
Hemmings struck the ball low, hard and on target... and though Collin guessed which way to dive, he never got anywhere near it.
The full time whistle sounded shortly afterwards, and though the Magpies remain in third place, three points above Mansfield, Flitcroft's side still have a game in hand over them.
Notts were the better side (marginally) in the first half and the Stags reciprocated after the interval when they had (marginally) more of the attacking impetus. I reckon a draw was about right.
Hopefully when these two sides meet, it will be in League 1 next season Lord almighty! How magnanimous and polite have I become in my greying hair, pipe and slippers years.
FT: Notts County 1 v Mansfield Town 1
What an ugly runt of a game that had been, regardless of which part of the ground you had been watching it from.
If only Chesterfield would give the Stags supporters the same amount of tickets that they got today, when they play their real bitter local rivals at the Proact Stadium next month.
What an awesome day out that would be to celebrate my 'significant age' birthday this year.
Were the frequent blizzards so bad, that the weather impaired and obscured their vision that much?
Perhaps they might have stayed out of the snow altogether and watched updates coming through on Ceefax in the Meadow Lane boardroom.
But today; well they made themselves look like a pair of in denial, spoilt kids denied sweetie rations, unable to accept and stubbornly denying the stonewall evidence and plain facts that were there for all to see. Apart from to those who were wearing blinkers (or maybe even a blindfold).
It is perfectly understandable, that in the heat of the moment of the immediate aftermath of seeing three points evaporate into one, after a home win had appeared to be nailed on, that anyone might blow a fuse a lash out verbally... but rules are rules, and we all have to abide by them.
Two photos taken from the same spot five minutes apart.
If anybody is struggling to comprehend where all of the added on time came from, or more pertinently doesn't want to... the referee added thirty seconds per substitution, as per the rules of the game, and two of those substitutions were made after the initial (minimum of) seven minutes had been added on for stoppages and delays incurred on three separate occasions, when injured players were receiving treatment, namely: County's Jon Stead and the Mansfield pair of Danny Rose and Krystian Pearce, the latter of which was a particularly lengthy one and thankfully the injury turned out not to be as serious as it first looked.
I don't think that the referee had an especially good game, but then who did in these hideous conditions? However his questionable decisions didn't favour either side unduly... and yes! I did see the Stags second half substitute Lee Angol control the ball with both of his hands, but also spotted the wave to 'play on' when the same player had been blatantly flattened near the touchline in front of the Derek Pavis Stand moments later, that's the swings and roundabouts of association football.
 |
| Oh no! Terry Hawkridge has opened the scoring |
Maybe the question that anybody connected with the home side should actually be asking, is: "Lewis my good man, why the effing hell did you handle the ball in full view of the referee, with only a few seconds of added time remaining?"
Hey you guys: 'Don't blame it on the sunshine. Don't blame it on the moonlight. Don't blame it on good times. Blame it on your own bloody daft number seven!'
But Alex MacDonald lobbed the ball onto the roof of the Pies goal, and County's keeper Adam Collin did well to keep out a speculative effort by Danny Rose around the half hour mark... although I might have imagined it; because according to the Notts version of events their goalkeeper had nothing to do until the 97th minute.
However Nolan's side did probably shade the first half, or whatever actual football was played in it and when Terry Hawkridge forced the ball past Conrad Logan, after Ameobi's thumping header had spun into the air and dropped into the Stags six yard box from Carl Dicksinson's right wing corner, that had been awarded as a consequence of Conrad Logan turning an effort from Ameobi round the post with his legs just moments earlier.
but Alessandra prevented it going any further by sticking out his hand.
The Stags followers, most of who still hadn't left, cheered as though they had actually already scored. But I stood their crossing everything I had in the hope that Kane Hemmings was going to handle the pressure situation better than I was doing.
Hemmings struck the ball low, hard and on target... and though Collin guessed which way to dive, he never got anywhere near it.
 |
| Oh yes! Kane Hemmings has just equalised |
Notts were the better side (marginally) in the first half and the Stags reciprocated after the interval when they had (marginally) more of the attacking impetus. I reckon a draw was about right.
Hopefully when these two sides meet, it will be in League 1 next season Lord almighty! How magnanimous and polite have I become in my greying hair, pipe and slippers years.
FT: Notts County 1 v Mansfield Town 1
If only Chesterfield would give the Stags supporters the same amount of tickets that they got today, when they play their real bitter local rivals at the Proact Stadium next month.
What an awesome day out that would be to celebrate my 'significant age' birthday this year.
