Report
The Stags lost to the League leaders last night due to an early goal against, a goal headed out of the ‘Wood goal on the 90th minute and a sending off which forced them to defend for a quarter of the match when they looked to be much better going forward.
‘Wood scored what turned out to be the winner after only two minutes when a high ball was sent into the home penalty area. ‘Keeper Charlie Hasler came out to get the ball but there was no call to Marc Ward who was midway in his penalty area. He headed the ball with the back of his head, the ball flew back and hit the crossbar, rebounded to Ian Cooper who gratefully headed home.
This signalled the start of what was probably ‘Wood’s best period of the match whilst the Stags adjusted and settled to the situation. During this time they should have claimed a second goal but Samuels fired wildly over the bar from 6 yards after creating a great position for himself.
The Stags settled and began to move forward with menace and set up one of their “trade mark” left wing moves when Fola Orilonishe sped down the left, swung the ball over to Richard Georgiou on the right. He passed inside to Wesley Thomas who shot just wide with ‘keeper Imber beaten.
A further excellent chance came on 20 minutes when James Chrysanthou joined the attack and thundered in a shot from the edge of the penalty area. Imber could not hold the shot and the ball fell lose to Thomas whose shot missed the upright by inches.
For the next twenty five minutes the game was end to end but there were few real chances for either side. For the rest of the half each side snuffed out the other in midfield.
The same scenario played itself out in the second half with most of the chances coming in the first twenty minutes when both sides could have scored on one or two occasions.
The first real chance of the second half fell to Cooper who pounced on a poor clearance and raced through the gap in front of him only to finish with an awful shot which Hasler saved with ease.
The play went quickly up the other end when Orilonishe latched onto a long clearance and sped in from the left. He let off a terrific shot and was only just wide.
The Stags began to work at their task and ‘Wood’s defence began to look a bit shaky once put on the back foot. On one occasion Thomas reacted the more quickly and pounced on a loose ball, put it through Imber’s legs but the effort was not strong enough so Imber was able to turn and smother the ball.
The complexion of the game changed when the referee gave Stags’ Carlos Brown a straight yellow card for late tackle as the last man, the fact that he was not and nor was the tackle any worse than all the tackles he had let go, seemed not to phase the man in black as he had lost the plot by then anyway.
Stags were forced to defend but denied ‘Wood any real scoring chances. Indeed, they could have gained a point in the last minute when Leon McKenzie headed goalward from a corner. For all the world, the ball seemed to have crossed the line before being headed out but neither man in black had the guts to signal a goal.