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Port Vale 2-2 Mansfield Town* (Hamilton, Sterling-James) Port Vale win 4-2 on penalties | Leasing.com EFL Trophy NORTH SECOND ROUND | Tuesday 3rd December 2019 | Vale Park  *The views expressed in this article, are solely those of the writer and not those of their associated organisations*
Another penalty shootout defeat leaves a very chilling feeling for Mansfield Town fans, as the Stags’ participation in the EFLs leasing.com trophy comes to an end – a disappointment in itself, but just another blot on the ever ugly canvas of the 2019-20 campaign. Frustratingly Mansfield again played well in spells with the ball on the floor, but what’s becoming more and more clear as this drags on, is that Mansfield clearly lack energy and fire power up front – with only one shot during the first half. Promotion winning teams punish teams with flare and dangerous attacking play, Mansfield are timid at best and seem reluctant to put the ball into key areas and have a go – possession is all well and good, but you have to do something with it. What’s more frustrating is that we have the players capable of causing real damage, a lack of experience at League level for Knowles shouldn’t be a deterrent for the Stags management who’ve nurtured him over the last couple of seasons in the academy, in actual fact he’ll have something the others don’t appear to have at the moment, a hunger to go out and make a difference. The same can be said for Omari Sterling-James, whose late goal took the match to the inevitable penalty shootout loss, every time he comes on he lifts the game and makes a difference – and yet he never gets a start, I’d love to know what three(?) managers believe is a reason for him not to start?! From the stands, it was clear that fresh legs on a dull and bitterly cold night were needed after 60 minutes, but no we left it and allowed Port Vale to get back in the game and overturn our one-nil lead to go 2-1 up, eventually making the final two changes with three minutes of normal time remaining – WHY!? Nobody expected us to win the penalty shootout having lost our previous five, but nobody expected out penalties to be so poor, it felt like a new-born whose only just started to crawl had taken them. In some ways, it felt like a massive two fingers up to us all – I know it wasn’t, but that’s how it felt in the bitter coldness of our woeful run. And so on this December morning, we’re out of all the cup competitions with only the league to focus on… let’s hope we’ve got something special lined up, because right now, I feel like we’ve done our shopping from Del-Boy. The journey continues. Match Recap John Dempster made numerous changes as expected, skipper Pearce missed out with illness whilst full back Kellan Gordon missed out through injury. Neal Bishop returned to the line-up after a lay-off. Click HERE to read the clubs official match report FULL TIME: Port Vale 2-2 Mansfield Town PORT VALE WIN 4-2 ON PENALTIES STAGS: [4-4-2] Bobby Oljenik | James Clarke, Conor Shaughnessy, Ryan Sweeney, Mal Benning © | Alex MacDonald (Omari Sterling-James 86), Alistair Smith (Jimmy Knowles 86), Neal Bishop, CJ Hamilton | Andy Cook, Otis Khan (Jacob Mellis 74) Unused Subs: Conrad Logan, Willem Tomlinson, Nicky Maynard, Dapo Afolayan *The views expressed in this article, are solely those of the writer and not those of their associated organisations* Comments are closed.
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