SkyBet EFL League Two
at Meadow Lane
Notts County (1) 1
Craig Mackail-Smith 19
Craig Mackail-Smith 19
Mansfield Town (0) 0
Attendance: 12,660 ...which includes 4,283 in the Jimmy Sirrel Stand, which was allocated to away supporters, but I saw quite a few Stags fans in the Derek Pavis Stand too... however, they remained incognito, but if truth be told, they had absolutely nothing to shout, or get even mildly excited about, for the vast majority of the game.
Attendance: 12,660 ...which includes 4,283 in the Jimmy Sirrel Stand, which was allocated to away supporters, but I saw quite a few Stags fans in the Derek Pavis Stand too... however, they remained incognito, but if truth be told, they had absolutely nothing to shout, or get even mildly excited about, for the vast majority of the game.
On today's evidence, if you were viewing this game sans the benefit of having any prior knowledge of the facts of the matter in hand upfront, and you'd been asked to guess which team was the trailblazing and all-conquering form-team, going into this afternoon's match in second place in the table, just three points behind the current League Two leaders Lincoln City, and which one has spent the last few months sinking up to their ears into the relegation quicksand, while becoming a laughing stock both on and off the pitch, then you could be forgiven for thinking that it was Notts County who have been enjoying a bouyant season and were in the ascendancy, instead of today's losing side who have been enjoying by far the better of things of late.
Neal Ardley has recruited well during the recent transfer window, and subsequently his team are unbeaten in February, including a draw against the aforementioned Imps and wins against two other promotion chasing sides, namely: Forest Green Rovers and this afternoon's victims Mansfield Town.
The Magpies had looked all but dead and buried at the turn of the year, and were being widely written off as relegation fodder, but if they continue their recent run and defeat Newport County at Meadow Lane on Tuesday night, they will actually claw their way out of the drop zone (i.e. the bottom two places in the whole of the Football League), albeit by a solitary point, but that is a massive leap from the position that they were seemingly anchored to, just a month ago.
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| Gordon Banks - Rest In Peace |
Things could actually have got a whole lot worse for the Stags, had it not been for two moments of overly lenient refereeing, when the match official, one Lee Mason, only showed a yellow card to Ben Turner early in the game, when he wrestled Craig Mackail-Smith to the ground unceremoniously, when the 'Pies number twenty eight had a clear sight of goal and was to all intents and purposes 'the last man'... it was a clearly a sending off offence and Turner was a lucky man to still find himself involved in the game, even if Mackail-Smith had got away with the crafty use of his hand in the build up that led to the more blatant transgression. Jacob Mellis was very fortunate too, that his lunge on Virgil Gomis around the hour mark only earned him a booking, because his foot was up and his studs were showing... and unless I'm mistaken, that is also a red card offence.
Either way,the Stags manager, David Flitcroft substituted both of the players mentioned above, possibly for tactical reasons, but probably most likely because he wanted to keep eleven players on the pitch.
I'll no doubt stand accused of showing bias to the home side for presenting my take on these two incidents in such a way, but nothing could be further from the truth. This is merely my impartial overview on what I saw with my own eyes... and anyone who knows me will be well aware of the fact that I most certainly wouldn't have been favouring County today, nor did I actually want them to win this game, not by any stretch of anybodies imagination.
Mansfield were below average today (and I'm definitely showing my bias here, by describing their limited input to this game so generously), but it is something of a misnomer to assume that that the Stags were the architects of the own downfall, because much as it pains me to say such a thing: Notts won the game because they deserved to, by virtue of being the better side, by overrunning their shell-shocked visitors in midfield, and by showing a hell of a lot of heart, passion, desire, work-rate and running (five attributes that they were the only side to display any inclination towards all afternoon)... and for ultimately claiming the points with a very well taken goal, when Maikel-Smith rattled the ball past Jordan Smith, after Gomis had directed Rob Milsom's right wing cross back towards the Scottish marksmen, as Mansfield struggled to clear their lines in the nineteenth minute.
It would constitute telling a complete pack of lies, if I'd even tried to put a positive spin on the overall game from a Stags perspective, or redirect any of the credit that County wholly warranted away from them.
For what it's worth, both sets of supporters thought that the referee was poor, and I'd have to concur with that point of view too and there were plenty of examples of his curious decision making that I could list to quantify that comment; but even though he'd spared two Mansfield players the ignominy of being sent off, his often frustrating performance didn't influence the end result, because he completely dumbfounded both teams in equal measure, with a number of his bizarre calls.
Mansfield had totally dropped their guard today and got clobbered where it hurt the most as a consequence. Maybe they were displaying signs of being complacent, but even if they did let expectations cloud their judgement, it needs to be said, that if Notts continue to turn up and put a shift in like they did today, they will still be 'the oldest Football League club in the known universe' next season.
It would be churlish to rubbish the Stags altogether on the strength (or more to the point, their failure to deal with County's strengths) of this solitary display, when so much progress is being made at the club this season, but they seriously need to address what went wrong today (and last Saturday when they also lost 1-0, at Newport County) and get back into a positive and focused mindset, with immediate effect, or they're going to see all of the effort they've put in thus far evaporate away to nothing, as they come up against teams who are desperately looking for points to bolster their own campaigns, who will up the ante and tempo accordingly and do whatever needs to be done, by any means necessary, to improve their own lot.
On reflection, Mansfield had a couple, maybe even possibly three half chances today, but they never even registered a single shot on goal all game... so they now need to pick themselves up, adopt a far more serious battle code and prove to everybody, including themselves, that they're genuine contenders and not mere pretenders.
I'm sure that they'll be up to the task in hand and want to put things right ASAP, starting in their next two games, against Forest Green Rovers and Cheltenham Town, which are both being played at Field Mill (AKA the One Call Stadium).
But as regards today, sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and say: the opposition thoroughly deserved to win because they were the best team over the course of the entire ninety plus minutes. Michael Doyle and Jim O'Brien bossed the midfield, Enzio Boldewijn and Virgil Gomis both played very well and were a handful that the Stags struggled to deal with, Mitch Rose impressed and Craig Maikel-Smith was providing his recently signed teammates with plenty of options as well as finding the net with a well taken goal... while John Stead put in a real captain's performance.
FT: Notts County 1 v Mansfield Town 0
Footnote:
If anybody is planning on attending the Stags Reserves game v Doncaster Rovers on Tuesday afternoon, it's being played at Alfreton Town's 'Impact Arena' (North Street, DE55 7FZ) and kicks off at 1PM
