A cold grey Nottinghamshire sky greeted the teams for this FA Cup 1st Round tie this afternoon.

The talented but woefully inconsistent Stags will be looking for victory to ease the growing pressure on manager John Dempster as his misfiring troops continue to frustrate the Field Mill faithful.

There is no such weight of expectation for the Magpies & their boss Jamie Vermiglio. His team currently lie rock bottom of the National League with only one league win so far this season so this should be an ideal opportunity for them to relax & show a wider audience what they could do.

The Stags started in a traditional 4-4-2 & lined up as follows;

1 Logan

20 Gordon                    17 Sweeney                      4 Preston                   3 Benning

7 McDonald                   16 Tomlinson                     6 Bishop                   10 Khan

19 Cook                           11 Maynard

Town’s National League opponents took to the field in a 5-3-2 formation as follows;

1 Urwin

2 Challoner     16 Baines  6 Meppen-Walters    12 Ross    3 Blakeman

13 Cottrell        15 Smith       17 Nortey

19 Vernam     18 Massanka

FIRST HALF

The visitors started brightly & had a glorious chance to open the scoring in only the second minute but unfortunately, the Lancastrian’s full-back Challoner blazed high & wide from the edge of the area when well placed. The hosts tried to press forward in the early stages but a series of misplaced passes & poor decisions when in possession were getting the home crowds back up somewhat. Chorley’s three centre backs particularly the very impressive Meppen-Walters were dealing very easily with the League 2 sides rather powder puff attacks whilst not looking particularly impressive further forwards themselves as the worst 45 minutes of football I’ve witnessed all season ended with a chorus of boos from the home support.

HT Stags 0 Magpies 0

The early part of the second period was a carbon copy of what had gone before, namely plenty of Mansfield possession but absolutely nothing to show for it & the Chorley defence growing in confidence & dealing very well with what little they had to cope with. The home crowd was pleading with the bench to change things & eventually Dempster relented, replacing the disappointing Cook & McDonald with wide man CJ Hamilton & forward Danny Rose & guess what?

The Stags started creating chances. Firstly Nicky Maynard’s goalbound effort was blocked brilliantly by Magpies defender Blakeman, next a Neal Bishop strike was well parried by Urwin for the games FIRST shot on target. Keen to keep up this momentum the Stags introduced midfielder Jacob Mellis for the largely anonymous Tomlinson as the League Two side cranked up the pressure on their non-league visitors. A Mal Benning low cross that just needed a touch was narrowly missed by the onrushing Rose as the pressure continued but then came the 90 seconds that determined the result of the match.

On 80 minutes & out of nothing Chorley who had made substitutions of their own were within a whisker of taking the lead when a cross from the right was headed goalwards from close range by sub Lewis Baines but Stags keeper Conrad Logan produced a brilliant save to palm the ball over for a corner which was cleared upfield by the hosts. Hamilton squared the ball to fellow sub Mellis whose powerful shot was parried by Urwin but only as far as Maynard who headed into an empty net to put the L2 side into the second round. Chorley finally put the home defence under a bit of pressure late on & even forced a couple of corners but there were no real chances as the game ended to another chorus of boos from the Mansfield faithful.

FT Stags 1 Magpies 0

A win is a win & the Stags are into the second round but that’s where the good news ends. On paper & with the quality of their squad Mansfield should comfortably be in the top 7 of L2 & of course they still can be, after all it’s only November but there’s a lot wrong at Field Mill. Is it coaching? possibly, is it lack of confidence? quite definitely. I hate to be critical but the home support’s speed at criticising the team & management ain’t gonna help & some unity between the team & fans is urgently required if the club’s lofty ambitions are to be realised.

Chorley fans & their team should take a lot of hope & encouragement from this fine performance as they aim to climb the National League table. True, they probably didn’t trouble the Stags back four enough but their defence was largely rock solid & in their beast of a number 6 Courtney Meppen-Walters they had the game’s best performer.

I always enjoy my jaunts & did this one but jeez it was cold & hard work as a watch.

words Ian Bradley, D3D4 roving reporter