Woking unable to stop red-hot Mansfield

Woking 1 Mansfield Town 2
Blue Square Premier
6th March 2013


Goals from Luke Jones and Louis Briscoe were enough to see off Woking as Mansfield claimed their tenth win in their last eleven league games.
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Briscoe opened the scoring for Mansfield when his lobbed cross evaded everyone and found the far corner. Bradley Bubb then levelled for Woking midway through the second half from the spot but a Jones’ header from a corner proved to be the winner for the Stags with twelve minutes remaining.

Woking started the brighter of the two sides and Kevin Betsy caused havoc running at the Mansfield back four. He opened the visitors’ defence up for Bubb to hit a powerful strike straight into the grateful hands of Alan Marriott.

The same routine worked in the Cards' favour again to provide Bubb with a more clear-cut chance but he slipped as he swung for the ball and allowed James Jennings to get the vital deflection.

Minutes later it was Mansfield who nearly took the lead. After some scrappy play in the Woking box, the ball finally dropped to Adam Chapman, who should have scored with his right-foot shot, but it flashed narrowly wide of the left-hand post.

It wasn’t long before Mansfield did take the lead in controversial fashion. Briscoe looped the ball into the box looking for Matthew Green, who was unable to reach the cross. The ball nestled into the far corner with a confused Seb Brown not knowing whether Green was going to get a touch. The flag was raised and after a lengthy discussion with his assistant the referee eventually awarded the goal, much to the anger of the Woking players.

Half-time score - Woking 0 Mansfield Town 1

Woking came out for the second half looking sluggish and Mansfield had a number of chances to kill the game off. The first fell to Chapman just minutes into the half, when his first-time curler had to be pushed wide by Brown. From the resulting corner Mansfield should have doubled their lead when Lee Stevenson had a free header from deep in the box but he was only able to hit the post.

Jayden Stockley (pictured) came close to levelling for Woking when an attempted clearance dropped from high into the box. The young striker watched it all the way onto his foot and struck it well just wide of the far corner.

The Cards started to assert some pressure and were finally awarded a penalty when Colin Daniel swung at the ball in an attempt to clear it but as Brett Johnson got his foot to the ball first he was tripped. Bubb’s spot-kick had too much power for Marriott to keep out and, despite getting a hand to it, the ball found the bottom-left corner of the net and Woking had an equaliser.

The Cards were level for just ten minutes and, for once, defensive frailty from a set piece did the damage. James Jennings whipped another dangerous corner in and Jones leaped highest to head home past Brown to restore Mansfield’s goal advantage.

Mansfield comfortably saw out the closing quarter of an hour to push themselves up to third in the table but the Cards will be left reflecting on a game that could have gone either way.


Woking: Seb Brown, Adam Newton (George Frith 88), Mike Cestor (Gavin McCallum 58), Mark Ricketts, Joe McNerney, Jack Parkinson, Bradley Bubb, Kevin Betsy, Brett Johnson, Jayden Stockley, John Nutter (Adam Francis 83)

Unused subs: Josh Griffiths, Elvijs Putnins

Cautions: Kevin Betsy 66

Mansfield Town: Alan Marriott, Louis Briscoe (Lindon Meikle 63), James
Jennings, Lee Beevers, Matthew Green (Nicholas Wright 82), Luke Jones, Exodus Geohaghon, Adam Chapman, Colin Daniel, Lee Stevenson (Matthew Rhead 76)

Unused subs: Ritchie Sutton, Chris Clements

Cautions: Exodus Geohaghon 65, Colin Daniel 67, Adam Chapman 75,
Matthew Rhead 85


Attendance: 1,179


MOTM: Jayden Stockley