Mansfield Town 2

Jefferson Louis 51' (p) Johnny Mullins 54'

Wrexham 1

Marc Williams 78'

Tuesday 01 April 2008

 

Kick Off @ 19:45

Wrexham
Starting XI:
01 Gavin Ward
02 Simon Spender
28 Phil Bolland
24 Gareth Evans
15 Mike Williams
33 Paul Hall 64'
09 Neil Roberts 64'
11 Chris Llewellyn
29 Sam Aiston
39 Drewe Broughton 71'
35 Stuart Nicholson
Substitutes:
06 Richard Hope
08 Danny Williams 64'
10 Michael Proctor 64'
20 Matty Done
21 Marc Williams 71'
Stats:
12 Shots on Goal
6 Shots on Target
6 Shots off Target
45% Possession
8 Fouls Conceded
4 Corners
0 Yellow Cards
0 Red Cards

Mansfield Town
Starting XI:
19 Carl Muggleton
02 Johnny Mullins
13 Alex Baptiste
12 Jake Buxton
03 Gareth Jelleyman
16 Nathan Arnold
08 Stephen Dawson
04 Jonathon D'Laryea
07 Matthew Hamshaw 87'
11 Michael Boulding 90'
20 Jefferson Louis 89'
Substitutes:
01 Jason White (GK)
10 Simon Brown
26 Kevin Horlock 90'
27 Keith Briggs 87'
30 Rory Boulding 89'
Stats:
13 Shots on Goal
9 Shots on Target
4 Shots off Target
55% Possession
6 Fouls Conceded
8 Corners
0 Yellow Cards
0 Red Cards

Match Notes
Venue: Field Mill
Attendance: 3,435
Half Time: Mansfield 0 Wrexham 0
Referee: Nigel Miller

Match Incidents
51' Jefferson Louis (Mansfield)
54' Johnny Mullins (Mansfield)
78' Marc Williams (Wrexham)

Match Reports

WSA: Final Whistle Podcast

BBC: Mansfield 2-1 Wrexham

Daily Post: Mansfield 2 Wrexham 1

Evening Leader: Mansfield Town 2 - 1 Wrexham

Mansfield Town FC: Mansfield 2 Wrexham 1

TEAMtalk: Stags narrowly defeat Dragons

Wrexham FC: Mansfield Town 2 Wrexham 1

Wrexham MAD: Mansfield Town 2 Wrexham 1

League Two Results
Barnet 0 Darlington 0
Mansfield 2 Wrexham 1
Rochdale 2 Bradford 1

League Two Table
    PLD GD PTS
1 Peterborough 41 40 85
2 MK Dons 39 39 82
3 Darlington 41 28 74
4 Hereford 39 24 74
5 Stockport 39 16 69
6 Wycombe 40 12 67
7 Rochdale 39 15 65
8 Chesterfield 41 18 63
9 Morecambe 40 -1 57
10 Grimsby 40 -1 55
11 Brentford 41 -13 55
12 Bradford 40 2 54
13 Rotherham 41 1 52
14 Bury 41 -4 49
15 Barnet 39 -9 49
16 Lincoln City 41 -17 49
17 Accrington 41 -32 45
18 Shrewsbury 40 -7 44
19 Macclesfield 41 -17 44
20 Chester 40 -15 43
21 Dag & Red 41 -22 42
22 Notts County 40 -14 41
23 Mansfield 40 -18 37
24 Wrexham 39 -25 33

Next Five Games

Sat 05 Apr: Macclesfield (h) 15:00

Tue 08 Apr: MK Dons (a) 19:45

Sun 13 Apr: Shrewsbury (a) 12:00

Sat 19 Apr: Notts County (h) 15:00

Tue 22 Apr: Hereford (a) 19:45

Match Report
Wrexham’s survival hopes suffered a huge blow following the 2-1 reverse at second bottom Mansfield.

The damage was done during a three minute spell at the start of the second half when Jefferson Louis scored from the spot after Gareth Evans was penalised for a controversial handball.

Johnny Mullins then swept home a crucial second in the fifty-fourth minute after the Wrexham defence were cut open by our hosts.

Substitute Marc Williams grabbed a consolation with twelve minutes left but this was no consolation for the 600 plus travelling support who will realistically be watching non-league football next season.

The result allowed the Stags to pull four points clear of Wrexham with Notts County a further four points away in the place above the relegation zone, but Wrexham will have to play a lot, lot better if we are going to close the gap when we face Macclesfield Town on Saturday.

Brian Little made surprising changes to the starting line up with top-scorer Michael Proctor relegated to the bench in place of the ineffective Stuart Nicholson.

Richard Hope and Matty Done also made way in an adventurous 4-4-2 formation as Mike Williams and Neil Roberts were recalled to the starting eleven.

With so much at stake for both sides, it was not surprising that it was cagey opening to the game but Mansfield went close with their top scorer, Michael Boulding, putting a header straight at Gavin Ward from Hamshaw’s centre.

Wrexham responded with Drewe Broughton firing a long range shot wide of the target but clear cut chances remained at a premium during the open quarter of the game.

When they did come, they were falling for Wrexham and Broughton forced Muggleton into his first save of the evening and Phil Bolland glanced Paul Hall’s resulting corner wide of the target.

Mansfield worked themselves back into the game as half time approached and it took a brave block from Evans to deny Hamshaw and Ward looked uncomfortable as Stephen Dawson went close for the Stags.

Both teams emerged unchanged for the start of the second half and Mansfield made use of the wind advantage to open the scoring just six minutes after the restart.

Wrexham failed to deal with Hamshaw’s well delivered corner but referee Nigel Miller failed to notice Gareth Evans being wrestled to the ground and instead awarded a penalty after Evans had caught the ball with his hand.

There was nothing that the young defender could do about the situation and despite two minutes of Wrexham protests, Jefferson Louis stepped up and sent Ward the wrong way from the spot.

Wrexham looked to be on the ropes now and it was no surprise that Mansfield doubled their advantage soon after when Hamshaw’s inside ball opened up the backline for Johnny Mullins to run into the space down the right channel and fire the ball low past Ward.

Ward kept Wrexham in the game with a save from Hamshaw as Mansfield looked like they were going to record their first win in ten home matches in some style.

Brian Little made changes with just under an half-an-hour to go with Neil Roberts and Paul Hall making way for Danny Williams and Michael Proctor to enter the field of play.

Wrexham were struggling even to record a shot at goal in anger despite facing the prospect of going out of the league and in a surprising move, Drewe Broughton made way for Marc Williams with Nicholson somehow staying on the pitch.

Staying that, Nicholson was involved in our goal when his shot with twelve minutes left was only parried by the underworked Muggleton and substitute Williams was on hand to sweep the ball home.

This should have been the start of a ten minute spell when Wrexham were camped in the Mansfield half but the opposite occurred and the home side had chances to put the game beyond any doubt as time ran out.

Ward again kept Dawson out with a good shot and Spender managed to block the rebound from Boulding and the best Wrexham could offer in reply was an injury time shot from Danny Williams that struck the top of the stand that housed the disappointed 600 travelling fans.

Match Reaction
Brian Little: “I’d like to see the penalty again because it was obviously the major turning point of the game. To go 1-0 down early in the second half was obviously a blow and I didn’t think it was a penalty. If I’m wrong, then fine, but I genuinely didn’t think it was and it changed the whole shape of the game. We then had a difficult 10 minutes and they scored again, so it was an uphill battle again. We expected them to have a good spell and I was disappointed in the first half that we didn’t put enough quality balls into their box. We have a massive hill to climb now but we won’t hide. We’ll roll our sleeves up because we’ve got a game to win on Saturday.” [Source: Daily Post]