Mansfield Town (U18s) 1-2 Doncaster Rovers (U18s)

Mansfield Town (U18s) 1-2 Doncaster Rovers (U18s)
Football League Youth Alliance
Saturday 1st February 2020

Junior Smith struck in the dying minutes to give Doncaster Rovers a hard-earned win over potential title rivals Mansfield Town in the Football League Youth Alliance (North-East Division).

Jack Watson’s opener on the half-hour mark was cancelled out by an equaliser before half-time but in a scrappy encounter which was significantly affected by the wind, the lads reaped the rewards for all of their efforts and took maximum points thanks to Smith’s dramatic late strike.

The result means Rovers stay top of the table; four points clear of Scunthorpe United who also struck late to beat Bradford City.

Rovers went into this clash at the top of the table, but were seeking revenge on Mansfield having lost in the most recent meeting between the teams (in the FA Youth Cup) earlier this season.

There was a change to the starting xi at left-back as Lewis Cunningham returned in place of trialist Aziz Sankoh, who featured in last week’s comprehensive 6-2 success at Huddersfield Town.

It was a bitterly cold morning at Mansfield’s new training complex, located just off the M1 in Pleasley, with several strong gusts of wind making playing conditions incredibly difficult for both teams throughout.

Rovers adjusted better in the early minutes, enjoying the territorial advantage, and Liam Ravenhill’s fine pass out wide towards Owan Derrett threatened to unlock the visitors’ backline - though the move ultimately came to nothing as the Stags kept shape.

The first attempt came on 13 minutes when Litak Hasani was fouled around 25 yards out. The dynamic midfielder took the resulting free-kick and unleashed a thunderbolt shot which rattled the crossbar, before Mansfield scrambled the ball away to safety from inside a packed penalty area.

Derrett looked bright, lively and problematic on the right side and created a chance for himself on 25 minutes, when he bamboozled his marker with some nice, clever footwork and cut into the area, but his shot unfortunately hit the side-netting.

By this stage, Rovers had a decent foothold in the game and were starting to turn their territorial pressure into proper chances.

Next to go close was Jack Watson who let fly with a speculative right-foot shot which bounced narrowly wide of the ‘keeper’s left-hand post.

Mansfield, however, remained a threat at the opposite end and only a fine covering challenge from skipper Ben Blythe prevented the Stags from breaking away on the counter-attack.

The deadlock was eventually broken on the half-hour mark and, delightfully, it was by the lads in red and white shirts. Watson was put through on goal thanks to a clever flick on by Derrett and the talisman showed exquisite composure as he advanced into a one-on-one and duly slotted home.

Remarkably, things could have soon got even better. Within seconds of the re-start, another ball down the left flank reached Junior Smith, who’d got into some space but some strong covering defending followed by a good tackle on Watson, prevented any shots on goal.

Donny had worked hard to get into a lead but, frustratingly, their efforts were undone when Mansfield equalised on 35 minutes; Ryan Ingram being played in and showing decent upper body strength to hold off a defender and slot past Ben Bottomley.

Things didn’t change much more up to the interval. Mansfield grew in confidence and probed a bit more, whilst Jack Watson had an effort cleared off the line at the opposite end from Will McGowan’s flag-kick. In truth, it remained largely scrappy with the wind still having a significant impact on the game and making it difficult for both teams.

After the re-start, proceedings remained extremely ‘bitty’ with not much in the way of either opportunities or goalmouth action.

Mansfield, with the wind ever so slightly favouring them, asserted their presence to a better effect than they did in the opening half and enjoyed a territorial advantage. Nevertheless, they were unable to find a way past Rovers’ defence which was marshalled superbly by Blythe and Nathan Dimou alongside him.

The wind continued to wreak havoc, stop fluidity or momentum, as the minutes ticked away with not too much going on.

In a couple of rare forays forward, Lewis Cunningham went on a driving run and caught a glimpse of goal though his relatively tame right-foot effort was blocked by a defender on the hour mark (and led to a counter-attack where Dimou ended the danger with some excellent play), whilst substitute frontman Marius Conradi saw a scuffed effort gathered by the Stags ‘keeper, shortly after his introduction for Derrett.

Rovers were put under pressure at the other end as one dangerous, inswinging corner needed to be dealt with, whilst there was several examples of good blocks, positional play and covering to prevent the hosts from making any in-roads, at various stages.

With five minutes to go, even in the unpredictable environment which is football, few would have expected things to unravel as quickly as they did.

Mansfield almost won the game when a speculative low strike from the edge of the box was gathered by Bottomley at the second attempt, with an opponent breathing down on goal (and leaving his foot in on the Rovers ‘keeper) in an attempt to get to the rebound.

Bottomley was left bloodied and clearly struggling in the few seconds immediately after releasing the ball to a team-mate, as Rovers launched a free-flowing attack which carved Mansfield apart and proved to be match-winning.

Watson collected the ball in the centre and knocked a pass to Conradi, to create a two-on-one opening. The second-year then played in Smith, who took a touch, opened his body up and mercilessly fired his shot into the net to give Rovers the lead with just seconds of normal-time left to play.

Six minutes of injury-time were then played as the Stags threw caution to the wind (no pun intended) and bombarded the Rovers box with balls and pressure, but the lads held their discipline together superbly - proving to be ruthless in both boxes, to get the job done.

The final whistle was met with fist-pump celebrations. It was a testing game; physical, demanding and one where concentration, focus, hard-work and good shape ultimately led to the victory - very much the opposite to last week’s success in West Yorkshire.

The lads can be proud of their efforts and work-rate as yet again they’ve had a test of character and come up trumps.

Next up is a clash with mid-table Chesterfield, who held Rovers to a draw in the reverse fixture in November.

As a team performance, today was really good and the lads should be proud of everything they did to get win - especially the shape, structure, concentration and discipline.

Individually, Ben Blythe and Nathan Dimou had fine games at the back, Liam Ravenhill made a big impression in midfield; in my view he was excellent, and Owan Derrett had a good first 45 minutes which perfectly illustrated all his potential.

Well done, lads!

Team: Ben Bottomley, Elliott Walker, Nathan Dimou, Ben Blythe, Lewis Cunningham, Will McGowan, Lirak Hasani, Liam Ravenhill, Owan Derrett (Marius Conradi), Junior Smith, Jack Watson. Unused Subs: Kian Johnson, Charlie Bell, Luca Nelson, Josh Clemitson.