I journeyed again to Mansfield for their next game in the EFL cup home to Port Vale. To have achieved progress to the last 16 (Fourth Round) was a good achievement but they did not use this attainment as a cash cow opportunity but kept prices low, my ticket was £5. I looked at the cost of going to a similar round game at a Premier League club and costed it at £20 to become a member and a ticket for £52, wow. More of that in a later post but first the game.
Mansfield Town v Port Vale
Tuesday 31st October 19.45 kick off.
EFL Cup (Carabao) Fourth Round (Round of 16)
One Call Stadium, Quarry Lane, Mansfield, NG18 5DA
The Stags v The Valiants Fourth Tier of English Football v 3rd Tier
Mansfield, Yellow shirts with blue flash from armpit to end of shirt and Royal Blue shorts. Port Vale, White shirts with two wide horizontal bands of black and yellow and Black shorts.
It was a very foggy drive and the dampness hung in the air all around you but the temperature was a mild 10 degrees.
There were still people queuing up for tickets and three sides of the ground were open for this game as against two in the previous round. 1644 from Port Vale took up the whole of one end and their continual singing and chanting created a good atmosphere within the 7432 attendance. The home crowd had increased from 3690 in the previous round to 5788 on the night which vindicated the clubs decision to keep prices reasonable a good example of a club that knows its community.
Mansfield Town FC v Port Vale
The fog swirled round the lights and became thicker and made it difficult to see the far end.
The match started at a frantic pace, end to end with Port Vale using Tommy Sang overlapping on the right and delivering tantalizing crosses that caused problems and one shot from one of his passes shaved the post after 12 minutes. Port Vale continued to show the greater endeavour and 12 minutes later it looked to me like a handball in the penalty area by a home defender to me but in the gloom I could have been wrong.
Despite all of the Port Vale possession Mansfield nearly went in ahead at half time when a great cross was met by Keillor-Dunn who se volley was brilliantly saved at point blank range by Connor Ripley in goal for the visitors.
Port Vale had created the most chances but Mansfield had stayed in touch and caused problems with some quick long balls to the wings for forwards to run on to.
HT Mansfield 0 Port Vale 0
The second half was only minutes old when Alfie Devine ran through the middle from half way and from 20 yards out curled a shot that beat the diving Mansfield keeper to his left.
Port Vale bossed the game from here although a triple substitute by the home side did inject some positivity but it was Vale who nearly wrapped it up a few minutes later when Christy Pym had to make two good saves to keep the game alive.
The Home supporters were riled by the assistant referee who made three contentious decisions against them when they were attacking with some momentum.
There was unfortunately no late charge and comeback for Mansfield like against Peterborough in the previous round.
Being Halloween, could I say this was a thriller, No, could I say it was a horror show, No, it was a straight forward display by the higher League side who progressed to the next round
Mansfield Town 0 Port Vale 1
No chips here as I have written before but this time I had the sausage roll, not quite as good as chips but a worthy contender.
payonthegate 