Pre Season Friendly
at Field Mill/ One Call Stadium
Mansfield Town (0) 1
Krystian Pearce shot deflected via Ryan Sweeney 53.
Argue about it amongst yourselves.
Blackburn Rovers (1) 3
Tyler Magloire or Matt Preston, own goal 10 (argue about that amongst yourselves too), John Buckley 52, Adam Armstrong 85
Attendance: 1,701 (inc. 247 away fans)
Tony Mowbray's Championship side: Blackburn Rovers, provided John Dempster's Stags with the opposition for their first home friendly of their pre-season campaign, which followed on from two practice matches against Glasgow Rangers and Swansea City, that were both played in Portugal... and three warm up games, all away from home, against non-league teams: Retford United, Bradford Park Avenue and Alfreton Town, which utilised a lot of Under 21 and Under 18 players, as well as giving the first team squad some all important match time too.
Tonight, saw the first of three home games in a week for Mansfield Town, against Championship clubs, namely: Blackburn Rovers, Hull City and Nottingham Forest.
Another home game, scheduled for Saturday 27th July against Stockport County, has been cancelled at the insistence of Nottinghamshire Police, apparently because they local Constabulary will all be too busy working at a Gay Pride event in Nottingham that day.
These are the sort of games that teams use to iron out their mistakes and work on flaws in their systems... and to that end the Stags will be glad to have some time to work on a few defensive frailties that they demonstrated tonight, whereby a lack of focus and concentration led to unforced errors that were punished by Blackburn for two of their goals.
Thankfully there were no points up for grabs tonight, but the Stags back-line won't be able to squander ground and possession, or allow opposition teams anywhere near as much time and space in the last third, once the action starts again for real... with, ironically, an away trip to Newport County, who were of course, Mansfield's opponents in the League 2 play offs last term.
I promise not to mention that two-legged end of season episode ever again. I genuinely understand the deep trauma that some people are still experiencing, who subsequently won't ever be able to bring themselves to watch another penalty shoot-out until the day they die.
Both sides had several decent chances, and it was especially good to see Nicky Maynard and Andy Cook playing in the amber and blue of Mansfield, but it was the visitors who struck next next, when the usually super cool Krystian Pearce dropped a boob (an even bigger one than those that the Stags CEO Carolyn Radford recently invested in, to enhance her vital statistics), when he faffed around on the ball too long in his own area, which allowed John Buckley to nick possession and score from a free shot at goal, past the helpless and exposed Logan.
But within sixty seconds, Pearce had atoned for his dallying about, when he smashed the ball into the roof of Blackburn's net to pull a goal back, although the ball did actually skim off of Ryan Sweeney en route.
Another home game, scheduled for Saturday 27th July against Stockport County, has been cancelled at the insistence of Nottinghamshire Police, apparently because they local Constabulary will all be too busy working at a Gay Pride event in Nottingham that day.
 |
| Here's Johnny! Smart but casual for Mr Dempster. Somebody should've checked the weather forecast. |
I promise not to mention that two-legged end of season episode ever again. I genuinely understand the deep trauma that some people are still experiencing, who subsequently won't ever be able to bring themselves to watch another penalty shoot-out until the day they die.
Please forgive me, while I allow myself to get distracted from the football and have a bit of dig... but who the bloody hell ever thought that putting that over-sized, ex Wembley Stadium scoreboard over on the old Bishop Street terrace. Apart from the fact that it seldom works correctly... it's completely out of place and looks really, really crap.
There are many good things happening at Mansfield Town FC, so maybe it seems a bit churlish of me to be harping on about something that you might think is irrelevant, but I wish somebody would just fess up, that this monstrosity was a bad idea all along and revert to using the perfectly good old scoreboard at the other end of the stand. Just saying.
Blackburn's keeper had a good game and pulled off several top drawer saves, which points to the fact that Mansfield must've been doing something right... and to be fair they did play some decent stuff at times, but they were caught napping when Blackburn opened the scoring in the tenth minute and guilty of not closing down space more quickly, when Rovers Dan Butterworth received the ball from a swiftly taken free-kick, while the hosts were still organising themselves, and the visitors number twelve darted forward before striking a low cross into the six yard box, and the ball ended up in the back of Conrad Loagan's net as Tyler Magloire and Matt Preston met it at the same time. Initially I thought 'own goal', but Magloire was announced as the scorer, so que sera.
But within sixty seconds, Pearce had atoned for his dallying about, when he smashed the ball into the roof of Blackburn's net to pull a goal back, although the ball did actually skim off of Ryan Sweeney en route.
Whatever the decision will be as to who can claim the Stags goal, it was definitely Sweeney who had the final touch the next time the ball ended up in the back of the goal, when he inadvertently headed the ball over his own keeper; but his blushes were spared because the referee had sounded his whistle in response to an offside flag just moments before.
Danny Rose was upended as he motored towards the visitors goal and Otis Khan was unlucky, as he struck the resulting free kick against the foot of the post.
With just five minutes left to go, Lewis Travis 'dinked' an angled pass through a static Stags defence, that was inch perfect a well timed run by Adam Armstrong, who picked his spot and clinched the victory for Blackburn.
Twenty two year old Armstrong, a former Newcastle United player, .has represented Englansd at U16, U17, U18, U19, U20 and U21 level.
The biggest plus of the night for Mansfield, in my humble estimation, was seeing Haydn White (who is recovering from an injury lay off), get through the entire second half completely unscathed (apart from getting 'megged' by a Championship calibre player... just the once).
FT: Mansfield Town 1 v Blackburn Rovers 3
Footnote* added Friday 19th July 2019: 11:45AM
On the same afternoon that The Stags v Stockport game was postponed, after Nottinghamshire Police claimed not to have sufficient manpower to cover the game, Mansfield Town will now face Glasgow Rangers U23 at 1PM on Saturday 27th July instead.
Hmm... methinks that there are possibly more ex-pat Rangers fan within travelling distance of Field Mill. than there are East Midlands based Stockport supporters.
The truth is out there somewhere, eh!?
