Nice to meet you properly BO in the glue pot
For once I have read back and I'd like to say it was also good to meet you and Flash in the gluepot beforehand. After all these years as well!
As for the game itself, I thought Mansfield started the game strongly and with confidence and I feared it was only a matter of time before they got the opening. But with that said, they didn't really create anything clear cut, it just looked like they had 'control'. After seeing out that spell, we started to come into it and Khan, Kemp and Kinsella were working well in midfield and the ball was sticking with Young up front. The one part of our game you can see we have worked on in training is set-pieces, particularly corners but that free kick Kemp dinked into Young to guide into the corner must be one of those goals that coaches love, as you assume a lot of time is spent in training on it. I was enjoying Minturn's performance in particular. He was strong in the tackle and brought the ball out of defence really well. A really confident performance.
Unfortunately second half they subbed off Bowery for Akins up top and it completely changed the dynamic. All of a sudden Minturn was shaky and Mansfield quickly equalised after a bad bit of defending. The second half was quite open and whilst I did fear Mansfield would score, apart from them hitting the bar all of their other chances were kind of half-chances which were often straight at Mahoney. Chucking Flint up front was an interesting tactic and even more interesting was not even challenging him for a header. I guess when you have a 6ft6 beast in the air, not challenging him means you have an extra body to pick up the flick on etc? We through on Charlie, I figured to help defend Flint's danger but after a patient bit of play Shade put in a lovely ball, Charlie met it perfectly onto the post, the ball coming back to him to swivel and shoot, which was blocked back to Young, it hit the post again and finally smashed home by Young to grab a much needed 3 points. There is nothing better than a last minute winner in front of the Town End is there?
Overall, I've said in the MOM thread that I thought sacrificing Charlie for an extra body in midfield felt like the right change. Kemp and Young look energised (huge holes to fill in January) and Khan played his best game for a long time. At the back I think UGM is the more reserved CB, I guess that makes sense as he is the fastest and will be able to cover best when we lose the ball in transition. FBT (in particular) and Minturn could step nicely into midfield to offer extra bodies. I think Minturn plays with a lot of confidence for a young kid, terrific first half but I think after Akins came on he looked a bit less composed. It was great for him to get 90 in such an important game though.
