Walsall 1-2 Stags | Back in the saddle

Walsall 1-2 Mansfield Town (Andy Cook, Alex MacDonald) | Sky Bet League Two | Saturday 26th October 2019 | Banks’s Stadium     

​*The views expressed in this article, are solely those of the writer and not those of their associated organisations*

One of my favourite quotes is “fall down seven times, stand up eight” – simply meaning that you have the courage to stand up, be counted and succeed more times than you fall. After losing to Salford in the week, the Stags needed to stand up once more against struggling Walsall, in order to not start to struggle themselves.

Apart from a scrappy opening ten minutes and a lapse in concentration at the end of the first half, Mansfield looked to have enough grasp on the game and deserved their victory, showing patience in possession and getting bodies into key areas at critical times – exactly what Dempster wanted the foundations to be when he took the reins in the summer.

With three months of the season now complete, you have to look at the progression in terms of results, systems and commitment to the cause. Whilst the season has been littered with a discipline issue with far too many suspensions, we’ve seen a transition from a squad capable of only playing one way to a team capable of dropping effectively into three or four systems – something which has been at the heart of our much improved October.

I said at the start of the month the objective would be to go through it unbeaten, the disappointing result in midweek sadly meant that couldn’t happen, but we’ve started to gather momentum and that has to be looked at as a positive, when compared to that dreadful September, had we seen a repeat of that we’d be in real trouble.

I don’t think we’re out of the woods yet because we’ve stuttered our way through October, but I certainly believe we’re going in the right direction – we need to prove so in November now, with a maximum three out of three wins in the league as we face Colchester, Macclesfield and Swindon. Nobody will care about the leasing.com trophy, Burton away – but that’ll be a tough test against a League One outfit which would give us some confidence, whilst without being arrogant, failure to beat Chorley in the FA Cup first round, would be a tragedy.

Onto yesterday briefly, credit must go to Conrad Logan who took a lot of stick for not coming out to claim the ball in the build up to Walsall’s goal – you’ve also got to look at defenders tracking runners there, Logan for me had a really good game and make some critical stops, demonstrating good positioning.

Andy Cook took his goal well against his former employees and seems to be showing why he’s rated highly with a good goal scoring record at a number of levels, whilst Otis Khan is looking very sharp indeed, given the freedom to play either in the hole or down the left – its not just about his assists, his all round play needs credit – nibbling at defenders toes, pressing full backs and causing errors, that’s the type of player we need to be able to turn a game in seconds – credit again must go to Dempster for giving Khan the confidence, game time and freedom.

​Three points is all that matters really, well done boys – let’s go and do it again next week!    

match recap

John Dempster named an unchanged side despite defeat in midweek, meaning there was no space in the 18 for Hayden White, whose ban is now over, however he’s still struggling with pain on his leg following the injury last season. Danny Rose missed out through injury whilst creative midfielder Jacob Mellis also missed out, despite being back in training.

Having lost four on the spin, Walsall needed a response – led by Mansfield born Darrell Clarke he showed no mercy towards his home time team with his side pilling on pressure inside the opening ten minutes, fortunately with no end result with the Stags all over the place!

Mansfield saw sight of goal on 12 minutes as Maynard forced a save from the keeper as he met ex-Saddler Mal Benning’s cross at the front post, four minutes later Maynard hit again to earn a corner, from which Mansfield couldn’t capitalise.

Conrad Logan made a fine stop on 22 minutes as Walsall broke through Mansfield’s back line, eight minutes later that stop proved critical as Andy Cook came back to haunt his old side, heading home a Khan cross after a brilliant bit of play from the Stags’ midfielder who had Walsall chasing shadows.

Mal Benning was next to annoy his ex-employers as straight from the restart as he threw himself in the way of Gaffney’s goal-bound effort, at the other end Benning sought another belter to add to his collection but whistled his effort wide – on 40 minutes Cook came close to a second, turning well in the area before firing wide.

Conrad Logan made another good stop on 43, but right on the stroke of half time was picking the ball out of the net, as lapse defending allowed substitute Adebayo to head home a free kick from close range.

After the break Walsall looked to turn the game on its head as Adebayo hit again, Logan wasn’t going to be beaten though and pulled another fine save out of the bag.

The Stags were forced into a change on the hour as Pearce was replaced by Preston after picking up a knock, Sir Mal Benning became captain Mal as Pearce winced off. Eight minutes later Logan made yet another save and Mansfield countered with the new captain leading the charge, he cut the ball back into the midfield – Alex MacDonald did the rest, powering the ball home from six yards. A good finish.

Sir Mal nearly added a classic Benning strike to the collection to seal victory, curling a beautiful effort towards the top corner, denied by a finger tip save from the keeper after a short free kick.

Afolayan and Hamilton both came on for the last few minutes which saw little action, the full time whistle followed sealing victory for John Dempster’s men.

FULL TIME: Walsall 1-2 Mansfield Town | Attendance 4,521 (877)

STAGS: [4-3-1-2] Conrad Logan | Kellan Gordon, Krystian Pearce © (Matt Preston 59), Ryan Sweeney, Mal Benning^ | Alex MacDonald, Neal Bishop, Conor Shaughnessy |Otis Khan | Nicky Maynard (CJ Hamilton 88), Andy Cook (Dapo Afolayan 90+1) Unused Subs: Bobby Oljenik, Alistair Smith, Willem Tomlinson, Jimmy Knowles
[^Captain after Pearce substitution]

​Written by | Craig Priest
*The views expressed in this article, are solely those of the writer and not those of their associated organisations*