Mansfield Town Reserves 0 Macclesfield Town Reserves 3

Wednesday 9^th January 2002

Report by Gordon Cleugh at Field Mill

Mansfield: White, Clarke, Shaw, Lazarus, Holyoak, Buxton, Robinson, Rew, Mitchell, Carter, Hurst

Subs: Elliott, Draper, Davies, Ghaichem

Macclesfield: Martin, Welch, Abbey, Whittaker, Came, O’Neil, McAvoy, Munroe, Harries, Lightbourne, Eyre

Subs: Brackenridge, Higgins, Woolley, Morris, Naylor

A young Stags side suffered a 3-0 defeat at the hands of table topping Macclesfield who fielded a side with a wealth of Football League experience whereas Stags, with the first team squad away in Portugal, included several youth team players in their side. Macclesfield passed the ball along the ground well most of the time and but Stags consistently gave the ball away too easily and had few chances. Macclesfield had numerous chances but few required any effort from White.

Macclesfield kicked off attacking the North stand. Macclesfield had most of the early play and had 5 long range shots in the first 10 minutes of which only one caused White any trouble.

Stags were saved by the post in the 12^th minute. A throw in just inside the Stags half was crossed to Lightbourne whose shot from just inside the box rattled the crossbar. Shortly after, Harries had a run in from the left and his shot from just inside the box went past the far post.

Stags first attempt on goal came in the 17^th minute after Came fouled Mitchell about 10 yards into the Macclesfield half. The free kick was floated in by Hurst who headed wide from the edge of the box.

Macclesfield had several more chances and the best was when McAvoy had a shot from inside the box which brought a diving save from White. The ball rebounded to Lightbourne who ought to have done better that playing the ball against White. The breakthrough finally came in the 37^th minute after a throw in on the left hand side. Lightbourne received the ball on the edge of the box and turned well and shot low past White from 10 yards.

Brackenbridge and Woolley replaced Munroe and Lightbourne at the start of the second half. Macclesfield dominated the centre of the park and continued to create chances. The second goal came in the 52^nd minute when Brackenbridge ran through the middle and passed wide to McAvoy whose low shot whistled past White.

Elliott replaced Hurst in the 56^th minute. The third goal came in the 74^th minute when a misdirected cross field pass on the half way line was taken up by Eyre and he ran through and shot past White from just outside the box. Macclesfield hit the post in the 77^th minute.

The game became a bit scrappy during the last 15 minutes but Macclesfield did manage a couple more shots. Robinson appeared to be suffering from cramp and was replaced by Davies in the 86^th minute. Thankfully, the referee did not add on any injury time and the crowd could wander off to warm up.