Report
The Stags were the architects of their own downfall when the gifted Leighton Town a goal in each half of the match.
Right from the start Town seemed more awake and this proved to be so when after only 74 seconds had elapsed Enzo Silvestri pounced on a poor pass from new boy Craig Dobson to curl a 40 yarder into the right corner of the home net.
Then for the next 20 minutes very little happened. Leighton adopted the tried and trusted hoof the ball upfield method of defence: not pretty but effective. It relied on the defence moving up quickly and preventing the ball from coming back at themselves by picking up players very quickly.
The two man pressure on each Forest man when he got the ball meant that passes were often rushed or the player was forced to keep hold of the ball too long. In either case the result was that Leighton had stifled the game whilst not adding anything to it as a spectacle.
A further result of the tactic was that Danny O’Sullivan, making his first League start was forced into defensive areas and was unable to set the forwards running with any kind of ball to change the direction of the attack.
The Stags knew it was not to be their day when, after 23 minutes, O’Sullivan was finally able to set Clarke on a run. When he got to the six yard box he was taken down by a defender, he managed to get up and was taken down again. Inexplicably only a goal kick was awarded.
It was not long before Forest were on the attack again. This time they won a corner and, with Panayiotis joining the attack could easily been back on level terms when he headed towards goal, ‘keeper Lee Clarke made a point blank save. The ball fell for Panayiotis again and he passed to Clarke who slotted home only to be flagged for off side.
Things were still looking good for the Stags when, on 33 mins Clarke attacked down the inside left channel and passed inside for Dobson who was free in the penalty area with only the ‘keeper to beat. He took the wrong option and tried to lob the ball around him but just missed the upright.
Next it was Sol Henry’s turn to have a good chance saved by Clarke then Dewayne Clarke again was foiled by the Leighton ‘keeper. As time went on and chances came and went, one could see it was not going to be Forest’s day.
The last pieces of action of the half saw Dewayne Clarke through on goal again with only the keeper to beat but, instead of shooting he tried to go around his namesake and soon found the path to goal blocked by returning defenders. Then Henry shot for goal only to see Andy Fagan clear from his own line.
With only two minutes gone in the second half the home defence failed to deal with a long Town clearance which allowed Alex Kingsley clear through on gaol and he made no mistake.
Leighton had 60% of the possession in the second half and started time wasting tactics from the moment of the second goal. However, it needs to be documented that, although the rest of the chances of the half fell to the Stags, Leighton did a very good job of protecting their lead.
The closest the Stags came to scoring was when Simon Tickner headed on to Ken Charlery in the Leighton penalty area his shot beat the ‘keeper and skimmed off the outside of the post. Leighton continued to press the game into the Stags’ half and managed to stifle the home side’s creativity. Very few chances fell to either side for the rest of the game but the Stags had the majority of those.