THE66POW: Cleethorpes Town 0 v AFC Mansfield 1

Saturday 12th September 2020

FA Cup Preliminary Round

at the mienergi Stadium, Linden Club, Cleethorpes

Cleethorpes Town (0) 0

AFC Mansfield (1) 1

Lynton Karkach 4

Point & hope photo gallery: Click HERE

Driving away from the Forest Town Arena car park, having just watched AFC Mansfield set up this afternoon's Preliminary Round tie with a hard-fought win over Sherwood Colliery as they surmounted a difficult first hurdle of this years competition, my head was turned by the obvious glamour factor of heading across the county of Lincolnshire to watch these two sides going head to head against each other for only the fifth time ever (the Owls won three of their previous encounters and the other time that they met ended in a 2-2 draw).

Get your glad rags on mi' Julie, we're off t'seaside.

I was further enthused about the prospect of watching this particular game when just seven days ago I saw Dave Smith's Cleethorpes Town turn Gainsborough Trinity over by five goals to nil. And in all honesty, following that very convincing Owls victory it was difficult to envisage anything other than a nailed on home win this afternoon... and probably by quite a sizeable margin too.

But, Matt Chatfield's Bulls hadn't been fancied by many people to get past the Extra-Preliminary Round either.

'Look the other way lads, Walker's playing with his bits again'

And though today's hosts were obviously always going to be odds on favourites to go further in the competition, if I didn't genuinely believe that Mansfield had it in them to at least give their hosts a run for their money and make a game of it this afternoon, then I might've opted to go somewhere else instead.

But having said that (even though I have several witnesses to the fact that such a seemingly far-flung theory was a actually part of my pre-match prediction), soon after the Bulls went ahead, I was still of the opinion that it would probably finish about three or four one to Cleethorpes now, instead of four, or even five nil.

Even one of the more optimistic of the visiting sides camp told me, as the two teams re-emerged after half-time with Mansfield a goal to the good, that if the visitors got a second goal early in the second-half he was feeling confident that they would be able to hold out for a penalty shoot-out by restricting the Owls to just two goals.

But knockout tournament football is a great leveller and the FA Cup in particular is littered with against all the odds type results.

Today's teams are only one division apart in the pecking order of things, but it really is a giant step to adapt from the NCEL to the NPL, as AFC Mansfield have found to their cost in recent times... and though you couldn't really go so far as call today's final score a giant-killing of David v. Goliath proportions, there will certainly have been some eyebrows raised across planet football when the final scores starting coming through at 4.50PM this afternoon, or even 4.56 from the mienrgi Stadium, as Chatfield's battlers had to dig in to preserve their lead for six agonising added minutes.

Cleethorpes jabbed away at their hosts from the off, but it was the Bulls who forced the first corner of the game inside the opening five minutes. Ben Algar's dipping delivery from the flag-kick was flicked on by Jordan Annable amidst a scrum of players who were jostling for position inside the six yard box, as Lynton Karkach ghosted in behind them all on the blind side of the Owls defence where he stooped to conquer, before planting a well placed header into Theo Richardson's net.

The celebrations amongst those who'd travelled over to support Mansfield seemed to be a little restrained and tempered by a cautious optimism born out of comments such as: "Bloody hell! We've wound 'em up now", and "Now we'll have to defend that one for the next eighty-six minutes".

Just two minutes after Karkach's goal, Paul Walker looked to have restored parity but his header came back into play off of the woodwork.

Luke Walker was only a fraction away from giving Mansfield a two-goal lead, just moments before Ross Hannah went even closer at the other end.

Hugo Warhurst, the visitors keeper who probably deserves an overtime payment adding to the bottom of his wage-slip in lieu of his efforts this afternoon, did well to keep out Conor Marshall's header after Jon Oglesby had picked out the Owls number four with a precision free-kick.

(L) Walker caught a stray arm in the face just outside the Owls area, which earned Michael Jacklin a talking to (but nothing else) from the match referee, David Jones.

From the resulting free-kick, Algar stepped forward and 'Bent it like (Harper) Beckham' getting way too much purchase and lift on the ball while threatening to cause extensive damage to the greenhouse windows in the grounds of the adjacent churchyard.

Oglesby was keeping the Bulls right-back Liam Marsden busy with his usual nuisance type presence and he almost put 'Clee' on level terms with a looping free-kick that needed a worldly of a save to keep it out from Warhurst, who got down to his left, to push the ball away at full stretch. To be honest, when the Owls captain Scott Vernon had been fouled when Mansfield had conceded the free-kick. I wasn't 100% convinced that he hadn't actually been just inside the area.

Warhurst was giving all of the photographers congregated at his end of the pitch (because that was where all of the Cleethorpes goals were going to be scored, right!?) a great portfolio of saves, stops and blocks for them to collate in their dark rooms later tonight... and the next pose he struck foe for them came just moments later, when Hannah broke on the left and delivered a square ball to Oglesby, whose effort was almost inevitably saved by the Bulls keeper... Hogo Warhurst as he was called in today's programme. For purposes of clarification, the ball was actually round, 'twas merely a figure of speech on my part.

The first-half ended with Karkach having a shot turned away by Richardson at the expense of a corner, while the hosts defended Algar's corner with far more aplomb than they had done when the same player undid them in the fourth minute.

Cleethorpes were in a determined mood to get back into the game... and while Mansfield were sitting on such a slender lead, they couldn't afford to let their guard drop for a single moment.

Although it had only been a friendly game seven days ago, when the Owls had done such an efficient demolition job on Gainsborough Trinity over the course of forty-five minutes, you had to wonder if that by going toe to toe against the higher ranked team today, Chatfield's meticulously organised side might be perceived as, and ultimately treated like, a naughty child who was recklessly poking a bee's nest with a stick, while waiting for an imminent reaction.

The home side were getting forward in numbers and though there were several heroic performances within the Bulls ranks, they're were getting stretched to breaking point and if truth be told did ride their luck several times. Curtis Bateson's strike fizzed just past the wrong side of the post and the Owls support were all but stood up, arms aloft and in celebration mode when Jacklin somehow diverted a free-header wide of the target from close range.

Vernon timed his run to get onto the end of a well-weighted Oglesby delivery, but his shot, that looked destined for the top corner was blocked by Jordan Annable, who had, along with his defensive partner Josh Wilde been a pain in the backside for the 'Clee' forwards all afternoon.

There was a short interlude in the Owls forward play, when Matt Sykes tested Richardson with a speculative effort from fifteen yards before one of the Bulls substitutes, Ross Duggan, hooked a shot narrowly wide, but in the main, the majority of the second-half was being played out in the Mansfield half.

Oglesby, who has impressed me no end both times that I've seen him in action this past week or so, set up yet another good chance for Vernon with a peach of a cross, but Warhurst got to the ball, smothered it and thwarted the hosts again.

Oli Donald made himself room to get a shot away as the clock ticked down, but his low shot across Warhurst's goal skimmed just wide of the left hand post.

Time moved painfully slow for the visitors as the game moved into stoppage time, while I checked in my bag to see if I'd got my CPR equipment with me because the AFC Mansfield chairman looked like he was on the verge of imploding with nervous exhaustion.

"Come on referee, is the bloomin' milkman bringing your whistle for you!?", was among the more repeatable shouts I overheard, as Mr Jones consulted Messrs. Rob Hall and Tom Knight (another Retfordian in the mienergi Stadium this afternoon) and put AFC Mansfield out of their misery and confirmed an end to Cleethorpes Town's interest in this season's FA Cup.

The Bulls had done things the hard way, just like in the last round, while the Owls must be wondering how they hadn't at least managed to take the game to penalties.

FT: Cleethorpes Town 0 v AFC Mansfield 1

The draw for the next round of the cup will me made on Monday dinner-time. I've got quite a few good friends at (and a hell of a lot of time for) both these two clubs... and to that end, it's a real shame that one of them isn't in this season's FA Cup anymore... but it wasn't for a lack of trying on Cleethorpes part.

Well done AFC Mansfield and good luck to the Owls and the Bulls for the remainder of the season.