United Counties Premier League North
The Forest Town Arena, Forest Town
Saturday, 9th November 2024, 3.00pm
Another Defeat On The Road
Despite the scoreline you could see the shoots of, hopefully, some better results coming soon. Rovers were still without some senior players but had managed to bring in one new player on a dual registration with Stafford Rangers and the young player made an instant impact.
Reinaldo Forbes made some great work down the left attacking and then coming back to defend, so much so that Paul Tomlinson and Gary Norton both agreed that it was a man-of-the-match performance on his Rovers debut.
For seventy minutes there was hardly anything to choose between the two sides with one in the top reaches of the league and the other towards the bottom.
It was only in the last 20 minutes that AFC Mansfield turned the screw and took all three points, when a draw would have been the just result, with a scrambled goal and a well struck second.
The game began with Louie Turner having to make a save at his near post from a low strike. Rovers first chance came on 24 minutes when Jamie Sleigh made a good run down the right and put a great low cross into the box but there was no Rovers player available to take advantage of the inviting ball.
The action went to the other end with Ryan Ingram getting on the end of a cross, but his low shot was well dealt with by Turner.
To be honest that was the best of the action for the first half.
At the beginning of the second half Rovers were forced into a change with Phil Kowalski replacing Eli Christie who had been struggling with an ankle problem.
The home side went close on 52 minutes as their attempt flew just wide of the far post. Minutes later Sleigh fired a shot which keeper Josh Turton had to push away for a corner. Jake Meakin had the next half chance for Rovers but his chip from just outside the area went over the bar.
Mansfield opened the scoring on 68 minutes. A ball into the box was failed to be cleared and a scramble at the far post saw Jack Gibb somehow posh the ball into the net.
More changes for both sides came with 20 minutes of the game remaining but on 81 minutes the home side double their lead but this time it was a good goal. A half-cleared ball was hammered back into the back of the net by Ingram.
With more changes for both sides saw the game fritter away to a conclusion.
