Report
Forest made two changes after their midweek defeat bringing in Juho Rantala in the middle of defence and goalkeeper Darren Placid but they were still unable to get those elusive three points despite having an excellent opening period of the game.
Before two minutes were over Forest had already had three good attempts on goal and after five minutes they were a goal up after an excellent ball out of defence from Kim Karlsen which found Dewayne Clarke on the right wing. He outpaced the Tilbury defence to cut in and shoot home from the narrowest of angles.
For the next five minutes it seemed that Tilbury were in for a drubbing but they had other ideas. On 11 minutes after some neat play down the left wing, Keith Wilson was on hand to put the visitors level.
Tilbury began to believe in themselves and started to cause the home defence some problems. By the eleventh minute they were a goal ahead when a poor clearance found its way to Kenny Leslie who blasted the ball back over ‘keeper Placid’s head. The was a real call for Niall Ritchie being off side as he ran along the defensive line but neither referee Mr Searle or his assistant saw the offence.
Forest pulled on back when Paul Salmon was on hand to head home a free kick rising above the Tilbury defence. Unhappily the half ended sadly with top scorer Dewayne Clarke going off injured then his replacement Joe Nartey being taken to hospital with ripped groin muscles.
The second half started so well for the Stags. Within a minute they were in Tilbury’s six yard box and Declan Perkins found himself in the right position when the ball came in from the right. Unhappily, the pas was a foot behind his level of balance and he was unable to do other than stab the ball towards goal giving Mahoney time to make a save.
The biggest bone of contention in the second half with ten minutes to go when Forest won a free kick on the edge of the Tilbury area. A long ball had deceived the Tilbury defence leaving ‘keeper Dean Mahoney no option but to come out of his area to handle that ball. The referee decided that the ball hit the ‘keeper’s hand rather than the ‘keeper consciously playing the ball.
It is questionable whether a ‘keeper will run ten yards out of his area only to handle the ball accidentally. If it was an accident, why did the referee give a yellow card? Who knows!
Cashman screwed the ball around the defensive wall only to see the ball clip off the outside of the post. Another corner was awarded and the Forest men began to show their quality with a number of fine in-swinging crosses.
Tilbury too had a couple of chances but their shooting boots were left in the changing room at half time. They could have taken the lead through Cobb more than once but he decided to shoot over the bar on two occasions rather than hit the back of the net.
There were some plus points in the match: Juho Rantala played his first full game in midfield and looked very capable as did Kim Karlsen on the right. The worry now is the injury to top scorer Dewayne Clarke.
The second half was a story of missed chances for both sides. In the end, the draw was a fair result.