Tuesday 4th December 2018
Checkatrade EFL Trophy
at Field Mill (One Call Stadium)
Mansfield Town (0) 0
Bury FC (1) 1
DomTelfer 35
Admission £10. Programme £1.50
Attendance 1,029 (inc. 27 Bury fans)
Mansfield Town:
Logan (GK), White, Benning, Preston, Pearce (C) (Elsnik HT), Bishop, Mellis, Khan (Hamilton HT), Sweeney, Walker, Rose (Davies HT).
Unused subs - Olejnik (GK), Atkinson, Butcher, Graham.
Bury FC:
Hudson (GK), Miller, Aimson, Thompson (C) (Lavery 58), Dawson, Dagnall (Omotayo 77), Styles, Cooney, Telford, Barjonas, McFadzean (Adams 46).
Unused subs - Maloney (GK), Hulme, Nyaupembe, Seriki.
Looking for positives, to pick out of the wreckage of this car crash of a Mansfield display, from a Stags perspective, you could say that they were better in the second half, after David Flitcroft had made a triple half time substitution, hauling off captain Krystian Pearce, along with Otis Khan and Danny Rose, and replacing them with CJ Hamilton, Craig Davies and Bobby Elsnik, but could counter that by adding that it would've been difficult for them to have played any worse than they had during a dire open forty five minutes, during which time Bury bossed the game and made the home side look very ordinary... not that they needed any help towards that end.
Of the three replacements who came on after the interval, it was only really the fresh impetus and running that CJ Hamilton offered, that made any difference to the overall shape of the game, but even then, Bury were still by far the better side... and they would've been delighted to have got one over one of their former managers.
It would be easy in the immediate aftermath of such a no show by the vast majority of the home side, to completely rubbish them, and pull them apart for such a piss poor performance, even after taking into consideration that a number of key players have been struck down by a virus that swept through the club over this last couple of weeks that might have influenced the way things went tonight.
But I'm sure that a large number of the supporters who turned out were feeling sickened too, by the time that the final whistle sounded, after ninety (plus six) minutes minutes of agonising frustration.
This might 'only' have been the Checkatrade Trophy, but the Stags kissed goodbye to £20,000 in prize money by virtue of losing this second round game, against what was effectively the Shakers second team... and what's more, the home side kicked off with a very strong looking starting eleven too.
Bury, for their part, passed and moved the ball around very well and were worthy winners on what turned out to be an unseasonably mild night on the western edge of Nottinghamshire.
Maybe the visitors went to ground far too readily from time to time, and the match referee Mr Robert Lewis was a stop/start kind of guy, who seemed to think that any player falling over his own shadow warranted pursing his lips to blow his whistle numerous times; so you can't really knock them for having worked out the match official's psyche and adapting to his ways. Football isn't merely about kicking and heading the ball while running around inn circles; sports science and psychology gives teams that extra few percent that'll see them over the line first too, though Bury didn't really need to gain any extra 'fine margins' to overcome such an unconvincing and inept showing from the players who donned the amber and blue favours tonight.
Steve Dawson, who turned out for the Stags 117 times, over a decade ago, may look slightly stiff legged and play in slow motion these days... but he pretty much saw to it that the game was played at his pace in the middle of the park and had more than played his part in the Shakers win, before he left the field in shame with five minutes of normal time remaining after flying into a reckless challenge on Tyler Walker near the halfway line in front of the dug outs. Dawson appeared to hurt himself too as he laid sprawled on the ground, off of the pitch... and though several voices were heard compelling Mr Lewis to get on with the game once Walker was back on his feet, because Dawson wasn't on the pitch, the referee was waiting for the Bury number eight to get up, so he could present him with a straight red.
Dawson had been involved in the only goal of the game, when he threaded a measured ball through a crowd of players into the path of Dom Telford, who took it in his stride, before drilling a shot underneath Conrad Logan. Telford has previously been on the books of Blackpool and Stoke City, and he turned out on loan for Bristol Rovers last season, before Bury captured his signature on a two year deal in July. On tonight's showing, the Gigg Lane outfit have got themselves a real live-wire handful of a player, whose non-stop running and ability to work himself into space to get on the end of just about every ball his teammates played forward across whole width of the pitch, made him the stand out player of the night in my humble estimation. Telford turns twenty two years old on his next birthday (tomorrow) and appears to be peaking at precisely the right time to carve out a career in the game for himself. I think Stoke might yet regretting this one go.
Of course, after building up Telford's status to a mythopoetic level, he missed an absolute sitter towards the end of the game, that would have put the game beyond the reach of the home side.
Not that they were actually looking like they were about to stage a comeback in any particular hurry.
CJ Hamilton excited the home crowd with some purposeful running, and he certainly caused Will Aimson more problems than Danny Rose had before he was taken off at the break, but he couldn't take the Shakers on single handedly... although he did try! While Timi Elsnik tried to pick up the ante for the Stags through midfield, but struggled to find any takers from within his own ranks to join him in his vainglorious cause.
Jamie Barjonas rounded Conrad Logan late in the game and opted to fall over the Stags keeper's glove instead of attempting to roll the ball into the unguarded net, as Logan tried desperately not to make any contact with his opponent. But Mansfield's number one had the last laugh when he saved Caolon Lavery's resulting penalty kick down by his left hand post.
FT: Mansfield Town 0 v Bury 1
All told: the best team (by quite some way) won. And before anybody accuses me about not writing very much about Mansfield Town tonight... there wasn't really a great deal to write about.
Draw a big fat line under it and move on.
