Mansfield Town 4 v Notts County 0 - EFL Youth Alliance (North East)

Saturday 7th September 2019
EFL U18 Youth Alliance (North)
The Matt Salmon Trophy
Mansfield Town (2) 4
Jamie Chisholm 7
Jimmy Knowles 12, 56
Nathan Caine 90+
Notts County (0) 0

Besides the three points on offer today, the victors would also claim the Matt Salmon memorial trophy... unless of course the game ended in a draw, in which case National League side's academy team would, as pre-match holders, hang onto the silverware.

But Mansfield took the cup firmly from their visitors grasp, and held it triumphantly aloft after a pulsating game, that I'm quite sure Matt would've enjoyed no end, while getting plenty of time on the pitch himself, treating several causalities (from both sides), as they dropped like flies across the course of this high tempo, no holds barred battle.

To summarize: "Young Stags valiantly slayed their neighbours, in a testosterone fuelled local derby", would've made a perfect sub heading. When the going gets tough... as they say.

It was one of those days when it was really a good job that I wasn't the Public Address system announcer at the RH Academy, so that I couldn't declare, in the aftermath of this very competitive encounter: "Thank you for your support this afternoon ladies and gentlemen, please be aware that the match referee is also available most evenings this next week, as a children's party entertainer and pantomime extra"... but hey! There would be no game without these dedicated men (and women) in black, so lets just be grateful that so many of them are willing to take up their thankless duties, right around the world, almost every single day... and remember that we all have off days at work sometimes.

The referee will doubtless have had better games than this particular one, and was probably glad to see the back of  Pleasley, after this ninety eight minute long endurance test cum Nottinghamshire derby.
There was a fairly extensive array of curious decisions throughout the game, that will have bemused, confused, confounded and annoyed people connected to both clubs in equal measure, but at least the man in the middle wasn't biased towards either side... inasmuch as he shared out the unfathomable calls evenly.

Ultimately, the Stags had that bit too much firepower for Notts to deal with, during this breezy lunchtime Youth Alliance fixture, which included having the almost unfair advantage of being able to count on having one Jimmy Knowles among their ranks.

Obviously, football is a team game, and every one of the Stags squad battled damn hard to claim the three points today and deserved credit collectively for having done so; but it was Knowles who forced County into conceding the corner, from which Jamie Chisholm opened the scoring, then netted a poachers goal himself, from the very next corner that saw Tiernan Brooks save from another Chisholm effort, before Knowles snaffled up the rebound.
In the second half, the highly rated Stags front man, danced his way past several attempted challenges, on a mazy run deep into the Magpies area, before curling a shot just inside the right hand post and just outside the reach of Brooks, at full stretch... he then topped off a man of the match performance, by unselfishly squaring the ball across the face of the visitors goal, to where Nathan Caine forced the ball over the line by the left hand post, despite of the close attentions of Mahzi Simmons.

Notts did have several half decent chances, but were kept at bay by the Stags keeper, Mason Campbell, while failing to find the vital final touch a couple of times too.
It would be easy to be critical of some of their profligate finishing, but their was a proper stiff wind cutting across the pitch, which tends to play havoc with these new fangled, lightweight balls, that these youngsters (who don't know they're born), play with these days.
Mansfield were more clinical in the final third... and that, when all is said and done, is what wins games.

The current league leaders Doncaster Rovers, slipped to a 0-2 defeat at Cantley Park against Bradford City yesterday, which means that Mike Whitlow's young Stags moved to within two points of the top spot, after today's convincing win... and they travel up to 'Donny' on Saturday September 21st, to take on Paul Stancliffe's side, in a game that kicks off at 11AM.
FT: Mansfield Town U18 4 v Notts County U18 0