AFC Mansfield completed the double over near neighbours Worksop Town with a 2-0 win at Sandy Lane on Saturday. The Bulls had to do it the hard way after top goal scorer Ollie Fearon retaliated to an off the ball push from a Worksop defender. Fearon swung a forearm which caught Sam Weston on the side of the head in full view of a linesman. After just 7 minutes there was only ever going to be one outcome.
The visitors reorganised and waited for the onslaught to come, it didn’t materialise and the Worksop back line looked shaky every time AFC went forward.
Jamie Yates had the 1st effort on the home goal a 25-yard effort that went wide of the left hand post. Minutes later Jimmy Ghaichem was upended on the edge of the box, it looked inside but the referee deemed it just outside. The free kick was dealt with comfortably.
Even with 10 men AFC looked the better side, they retained the ball well with some neat passing football in the middle of the park. Worksop adopted the Bomber Harris style of football and launched long high balls up to Jordan and Husbands which were dealt with by the excellent pairing of Plummer and Cheeseman at Centre Back.
The Bulls got their reward on 44 minutes when Matty Plummer met a Jamie Yates corner to head past Joe Kennedy to put the visitors into a deserved lead at the break.
Worksop started the 2nd half on the front foot and a couple of corners in quick succession were only halted by an infringement in the box to relieve the pressure.
A big incident on 54 minutes when Jordan went down far too easily in the box claiming a penalty after a challenge from Buxton. Fortunately, the referee was well placed and gave the Worksop striker a yellow card for his troubles.
Worksop were now cranking up the pressure but were still trying to carpet bomb the AFC box, Cheeseman and Plummer were enjoying the heading practice and keeper Dale Sheppard was getting some valuable time in on collecting high balls.
Steve Wankiewicz headed over on 71 minutes from a free kick and Lynton Karkach, who had run his legs off up front on his own for AFC Mansfield was replaced by another willing runner in George Milner.
Mitch Husbands did get away from his marker just the once on 80 minutes turning in the box and hitting a drive which looked to be going into the far-right hand corner of the net. Sheppard had other ideas and pulled off a superb one handed save to turn the ball around the post.
With just 5 minutes to go The Bulls doubled their lead. A Buxton throw found Milner who in turn fed Danny Naylor, Naylor gave the ball to Ghaichem just outside the box. The captain jinked past 2 players before hitting a low drive from the edge of the box and through a group of players which left Kennedy unsighted and the ball nestled in the right-hand corner of the net despite a full-length dive from the keeper.
Naylor fired a 30-yard free kick wide of the mark in the dying minutes and with nothing more coming from Worksop the whistle blew for the end of the game.
Worksop Town: Kennedy, Hodder, Parkin, Waddle, Weston, Wankiewicz, Fusco (Rickards 66), Loftus (Booth 66), Husbands, Jordan, Scott. Subs not used: Pickersgill, Hawkins & Johnson
AFC Mansfield: White, Buxton, Dudley, Plummer, Cheeseman, D’Laryea, Yates (Naylor 80), Lloyd, Fearon, Karkach (Milner 70), Ghaichem (c). Subs not used: Timons, Wall & Paling.
Referee: Mr Martyn Fryer (Notts)
Assistants: Mr Chris Hunter (Notts) & Mr Sam Kane (Notts)
Attendance: 365
MoM: Matty Plummer