Mansfield Town 3 v Guiseley AFC 0 - FA Cup R2

Sunday 3rd December 2017

FA Cup Second Round

at the One Call Stadium/Field Mill

Mansfield Town (1) 3

Jimmy Spencer 31, 52, 65 pen

Guiseley AFC (0) 0

Admission £12. Programme £1.50

Attendance 4,081 (inc. 675 away)

Mansfield Town: 

Conrad Logan, Hayden White, Rhys Bennett, Zander Diamond (C), Johnny Hunt, Alex MacDonald (Calum Butcher 74), Wilf Atkinson,  Paul Anderson (Alfie Potter 69), CJ Hamilton, Jimmy Spencer (Omari Sterling-James 88), Danny Rose

Unused subs - Bobby Olejnik (GK), Paul Digby, Krystian Pearce, Jacob Mellis

Guiseley AFC: 

Jonathan Maxted, Connor Brown, Ashley Palmer (C), Jake Lawlor, Lee Molyneux (Alex Purver 55), Kayode Odejayi (Danny Lowe 43), Simon Lenighan, Mike Fondop-Talom, Chris M'Boungou, Darren Holden, Liam Hughes (Kevan Hurst HT)

Unused subs - Joe Green (GK), Raul Correia, Callum McFadzean, Andy Haworth

An eternal optimist among the Guiseley press corp

Guiseley AFC, who currently occupy twenty third place in the twenty four team Conference Premier/National League (or 'Division 5' as some people have nicknamed it), saw off Shildon of the Northern League by six goals to nil in their first FA Cup game of the season (Fourth Qualifying Round), then beat EFL League 2 side Accrington Stanley (who are four places and five points above today's hosts Mansfield Town), 4-3 on penalties at the Crown Ground, AKA Wham Stadium, after their first round replay had finished one all.
The initial game against Accrington finished goalless at Nethermoor Park.
In their first round game, the Stags had comfortably beaten Shaw Lane AFC three - one at Sheerien Park, Athersley, with one of their goals (the third), scored by Danny Rose, picking up the accolade of winning the 'goal of the round'... and rightly so.

Formed in 1909, today marked Guiseley's first ever appearance in the second round of the FA Cup, though they have been as far as the first before, on more than one occasion.
At the end of the 1990-91 season, the West Yorkshire club reached the FA Vase final at Wembley, where they drew 4-4 against Gresley Rovers, before winning the replay 3-1 at Bramall Lane. In the same year that they won promotion from the NCEL to the Northern Premier League. Two season's later they reached Wembley again in the same competition 1992–93, but lost 5-3 against Wimborne Town, while also reaching the first round of the FA Cup, where they lost to Chester City who were still a Football League club at the time. Subsequently 'the Lions' have climbed up through the non league ranks to reach their current standing, just one division below today's opposition. Though at times this afternoon, that gulf in class appeared to be far bigger.

An added point interest to this afternoon's main event, was that Guiseley's management team: Paul Cox and Adam Murray have both recently managed Mansfield Town. In fact Murray was Cox's deputy for a while... and when Cox moved on from his post, Murray was his replacement.
When the Stags won promotion back into the Football League at the end of the 2012-13 season, after a five year (over)stay in the aforementioned 'Division 5', it was Cox who guided them to the Conference Championship and Adam Murray, as club captain, who raised the Trophy aloft on the Field Mill pitch, after a final day of the season win against Wrexham at Field Mill had confirmed the Stags return to League Two. I hope you've all been paying attention thus far, because there's a 'no prizes, just for fun' quiz at the end of this blog report.

When Steve Evans had said that places were up for grabs in this FA Cup tie for players who impressed in Tuesday night's ill fated friendly at Clipstone, I had fully anticipated seeing Calum Butcher, Paul Digby and Alfie Potter all lining up from the off this afternoon, as well as Jimmy Spencer, given their collective midweek efforts in a forty five minute pummeling of their neighbouring non league side.
But, I should know by now never to second guess the Stags manager, especially when it comes to team selection... and subsequently, when the team sheet's came off the press, three of the aforementioned 'contenders' were on the bench, while Spencer, who prior to today had never scored in the FA Cup before, nor had he found the net in any of his previous sixteen outings in Mansfield colours since Evans signed him for the club, was starting as the home side's main striker.
Hmm, let's have a look at the old scoreboard... and didn't they (Evans and Spencer) do well!?

By the time that Spencer was replaced by Omari Sterling-James in the 88th minute, just moments before the announcement was made that he was today's match sponsors choice as man of the match, he had scored all three of the goals that had secured Mansfield's safe passage into tomorrow night's third round draw and wholly justified his selection.
Today's win, meant that Evan's side ticked off an eleventh unbeaten game in a row while avoiding a potential banana skin against an overly physical Guiseley side, who could have no qualms whatsoever about being reduced to nine men, as they left the match referee Carl Boyeson with no alternative but to issue two red cards, with Darren Holden getting his marching orders on 40 minutes for a dangerous two footed lunge on Spencer, and Chris M'Boungou received a second booking early in the second for tripping CJ Hamilton, though he had been walking the tightrope for a while with a string of poor challenges after his initial booking, and had already incensed the home crowd with an unpunished strong-arm late challenge on Spencer.

Jimmy Spencer completes his hat trick

Football is  a results based game and though it is (really) tough on some of the first teamers and youngsters who are understandably feeling left out in the cold at the moment, Steve Evans and Paul Raynor are paid well to win games, any which way, and the frustrated players who are chomping at the bit to be involved, will be well aware that the horses for courses selection policy is pushing the Stags up the league and keeping them firing on all cylinders in cup competitions too.
Truth be told, if it wasn't for a great performance by the visitors keeper Jon Maxted, the hero of their penalty shoot out win against Accrington, Cox's team would've been dead and buried by half time, such was the nature of this virtually one sided game, and much as the noisy 675 Guiseley supporters sang: "Three-nil to the referee!", the Conference side only had themselves to blame for their numerical disadvantage, for adopting such an overly robust approach.

Guiseley AFC's wrong 'uns watching
the 2nd half from on the naughty step

'Physical' is one word you could use for it. However; implementing spoiling tactics by way of employing attempted bullying, brawn and intimidation, is probably a more accurate description. But to their immense credit, the Stags refused to let all of the rough house stuff knock them out of their stride. And to be fair to the referee, he wasn't about to let anyone bugger him about either.
Maybe if Guiseley had played to their strengths, instead of trying to stop the Stags playing to theirs, then they might have fared better.
Remember, this isn't a plumber, a butcher, a window cleaner, a baker and a bloody candlestick maker type of club. Guiseley have full time players... and I personally expected them to be much better than they ever gave even the slightest indication of aspiring to be this afternoon.
I genuinely like Paul Cox and Adam Murray and love what they did for Mansfield Town in the not so distant past, but I was very disappointed with and unimpressed by: the way that their current team played today. I was expecting them to be much better to be honest.

The match stats reflect the story of the afternoon fairly accurately, inasmuch as Mansfield had twenty four attempts on goal, while Guiseley mustered just four. But the home side committed three fouls all afternoon in comparison to the visitors eighteen.
Of course those figures don't include the Stags second minute penalty appeal, when M'Boungou clattered into Danny Rose as he burst forward into the left hand side of the area at speed. Hmm... "Three-nil to the referee!" indeed.
A combination of Maxted and the woodwork was keeping Mansfield at bay as they forced the Lions to play on the back foot time and time again, although Kayode Odejayi had the first chance of the game for the visitors during the opening exchanges, when he shot tamely at Conrad Logan... and five minutes later Lee Molyneux drilled the ball over the bar and into the unoccupied Quarry Lane End, which wasn't open for today's game. Which begs the question: why didn't Guiseley maintain their early threat, instead of resorting to the kind of tactics they employed from then on in?

They were evidently adept at absorbing pressure, but opted not to threaten on the counter attack, even once the Stags had taken a deserved lead in the 31st minute, when Anderson pushed forward on the right and delivered across at the perfect height for Spencer to glance a header pass Maxted.
It looked almost inevitable that the home side would rack up a few more goals now, but a combination of some dogged defending, a string of crude challenges around the fringes of the visitors last third and Maxted's agility, saw the two sides go in at half time with just a solitary goal separating them, though of course by now, the visitors were down to ten men following Holden's 'studs up' episode shortly before half time.
Seven minutes after the restart, with Guiseley down to nine men after M'Boungou's accumulated total of fouls had finally gone against him, CJ Hamilton, who put in a great shift today, broke free in the Guiseley area and cut the ball back from the left hand side of the goal to Spencer, who doubled Mansfield's lead as he drove the ball into the roof of Maxted's net from eight yards out.

And it was Spencer who sealed the Stags lead from the penalty spot, after he'd been upended in front of the visitors goal by their captain Ash Palmer while controlling Johnny Hunt's sideways pass across the six yard box.
Calum Butcher's introduction from the bench with fifteen minutes remaining almost led to a fourth Stags goal, but as Rose released the Stags substitute through the right channel, he powered a well struck shot narrowly over the bar from the edge of the area as he advanced on Maxted.
CJ Hamilton whose input to the game deserved a goal went close twice as the clock ticked down and Omari Sterling-James almost scored with his first touch from Alfie Potter's cross, but saw his effort deflected wide of the upright.
In the end, Mansfield had put in a professional performance against their West Yorkshire visitors and their superiority had seen them comfortably over the finishing line, while Guiseley's physical approach backfired on them today.
FT: Mansfield Town 3 v Guiseley AFC 0

Footnote (Added Monday 4/12/17 at 7:22PM): Mansfield Town have been drawn away against Cardiff City in the third round of the FA Cup.