EFL League 2: Mansfield Town 2-1 Colchester United

3rd December 2022

Mansfield Town vs Colchester United @ Field Mill - Mansfield

EFL League Two

15:00 KO

£20 entry (pre-booked)

Attendance - 5,918 (approx. 200 away fans)

Half-time score: Mansfield Town 1-1 Colchester United

Goals:

Colchester United: Newby - 11'

Mansfield Town: Swan - 35'

Mansfield Town: Akins - 92'

Brief match highlights are on YouTube, see the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv8YP-XENPE

Final Score: Mansfield Town 2-1 Colchester United

Another trip up to Lincoln threw up another opportunity for a Col U away day, a short hop across to Nottinghamshire to visit a new ground in Field Mill, home of Mansfield Town, and reported to be the oldest professional ground in the world! It has to be said that Nottinghamshire, nearby Lincolnshire and South Yorkshire is an absolute goldmine of football history (Gainsborough Trinity, Bramall Lane, Sheffield FC, Notts County etc.), appearing to be the region where the game that we all love was first developed, an area of the country largely forgotten but somewhere I've always enjoyed visiting.

This was a more tame away day, and planning to get some Christmas shopping I headed across early, the sat nav taking me through some old mining towns, past an impressively large disused colliery in Clipstone. Having put the shopping in the car, I made my way over to the ground, the floodlights poking up over the houses making it easy to locate. The ground was situated in an odd location, seemingly right in the middle of a retail park.

Upon arrival, seeing the Mansfield Town logo reminded me that this was my second week in a row watching a team known as the stags, having watched Mundford last week. It was only 13:30, so I spent a lot of time in the fan area, there was a fantastic bar selling a good range of drinks, fans were mixing and everything was good natured. I went to the club shop to look for a programme and pin badge, but the queue was too long, so instead I grabbed a bacon cheeseburger from the van.

This was certainly a top tier bit of footie scran, reasonably priced at £5, filling, tasty and with 2 thick rashers of bacon and loaded up with onions, it certainly hit the spot.

I got into the ground, helped the lads set up the flags then made my way up to the top of the away section. It was a solid League 2 ground, although the stand down one end of the pitch was boarded up and covered with advertising hoardings, didn't look great. Mansfield Town came out in their home yellow shirts, and Col U were in their away red, the game starting out under a mist of drizzle, eventually becoming full on belting down rain for most of the game, I wouldn't have expected anything less up north in December.

KEY MOMENTS

MT = Mansfield Town

CU = Colchester United

5' - MT - From a soft free-kick deep in Mansfield's half, the ball in pumped forwards unleashing Oates, he is through on goal and clumsily tripped by an out-of-position Dallison, but somehow the officials don't indicate a penalty - big let off.

11' - CU - GOAL (0-1) - A free-kick is awarded 5 yards outside of the box, in a central position, Newby steps up, surely he cannot score 2 free-kicks in two league games in row? Yes he can, he hits another stunning free kick, bending the ball out and into the left side of the goal, giving the keeper no chance - the Col U fans go wild and begin singing Alex Newby baby!

16' - MT - Oates attacks down the right and flashes a dangerous low ball across the box, somehow evading everyone.

35' - MT - GOAL (1-1) - Hewitt attacks down the right wing and fires in a cross towards the far post. Swan outjumps Chambers, his effort looping into the top left corner of the goal. O'Hara jumps and claims the ball but appears to have fallen back across the line, despite no clear indication from the linesman, the goal is awarded.

57' - CU - Newby bursts forward, and seeing Chesters make a break down the right he feeds the ball to him, he takes it into the box and his effort across the face of goal beats the keeper, but goes just wide of the far post, with Newby arriving slightly too late to tap.

82' - CU - During a sustained Col U attack, Tchamadeu whips a ball into the box, it finds Sears open, but hits the side of his body and the chance goes begging.

91' - MT - Danger man Oates makes another break, this time through the middle, and feeds the ball to substitute Akins in the box, his left-footed effort well stopped by the leg of O'Hara.

92' - MT - GOAL (2-1) - Left-back McLaughlin has space on the left flank and whips a ball into the danger area of the box, substitute Akins hauls down captain Tommy Smith and nods in, somehow both the referee and linesman fail to spot the blatant foul and the goal stands, breaking Col U hearts in the process.

I feel that Col U got cheated out of a result in this game, with a draw being a fairer reflection on the game. The first Mansfield goal should have been saved, but even so the linesman was not indicating it crossed the line until the referee took it upon himself to award it, and during the run up to the second goal, Tommy Smith was hauled down by Akins before he headed home, and this was completely missed by the officials, so a couple of iffy decisions costing us dearly. Mansfield fans may argue that they should have had a penalty, but the free-kick that led to the chance was also a poor decision in my opinion. Despite this, I was pleased with an improved Col U performance, they competed in the game and were on-top for large parts. Newby impressed again with another stunning free-kick, Ossama Ashley is shaping up well to be a great midfielder, Huws looked good when he came on and Chesters was sharp, but please for the love of God can we never see Dallison at left back again, he had no idea what he was doing and most of the Mansfield attacks came down this flank. Mansfield themselves looked distinctly average, not like a side in the play-offs, and their star player George Lapslie, brother of ex-U's player and fan favourite Tom Lapslie, was shut out all game. I feel that the work Bloomfield is doing is beginning to show, but I hope the results come soon otherwise we will be staring relegation down the barrel, so fingers crossed for a good result at Sutton United next week, UP THE U'S!!!!

Line-Ups:

MANSFIELD TOWN: Christy Pym, Elliott Hewitt, Oli Hawkins (C), Riley Harbottle, Stephen McLaughlin, George Maris, Hiram Boateng, Stephen Quinn, George Lapslie, Will Swan, Rhys Oates. SUBS: Kellan Gordon, Anthony Hartigan, Lucas Akins, Ollie Clarke, Scott Flinders, James Perch, Kieran Wallace.

COLCHESTER UNITED: Kieran O'Hara, Tom Dallison, Tommy Smith (C), Luke Chambers, Junior Tchamadeu, Ossama Ashley, Alan Judge, Dan Chesters, Luke Hannant, Alex Newby, Kwesi Appiah. SUBS: Freddie Sears, Noah Chilvers, Emyr Huws, Al-Amin Kazeem, Samson Tovide, Teddy Collins, Frank Nouble.