Archived News from February 2020
|
STAGS BEATEN AT LEYTON ORIENT
|
 |
|
English Football League - Sky Bet League Two
Leyton Orient 2 - 1 Mansfield Town Dayton 45, Benning OG 74. Watts 60 Attendance: 3587 (181 from Mansfield) Date: 11 February 2020 Martin Shaw at Brisbane Road Mansfield Town put in a very disappointing performance to lose 2-1 at Leyton Orient last night. After the game, boss Graham Coughlan said there were no positives at all to take from the game at Brisbane Road, and that’s about right I think. The only good news was that bottom club Stevenage also lost, and so the gap between 21st placed Mansfield and the relegation spot remained at 10 points with 13 games left in the season. Leyton Orient started the game three points ahead of Mansfield and having won only three home games all season, but they were the better side and deserved their win. They had some creativity in midfield and their two strikers, the excellent Connor Wilkinson and former Stag Lee Angol, comfortably out-performed the Stags’ strike-force. At the back, Orient looked jittery and made mistakes, but Mansfield were not able to capitalise. Things might have been different if the Stags had taken the lead early on and they had a goal disallowed for offside after just 4 minutes. Ryan Sweeney chipped a nice ball forward which Nicky Maynard controlled beautifully before turning and firing past the keeper. But the linesman’s flag was up. Neither the main camera view nor our pitchside camera view offer a picture where we can see Maynard when the ball was played so it’s impossible to judge if Maynard was offside or not, but it was certainly very tight indeed. Other than that though, Mansfield cannot count themselves unlucky. The Stags were lucky not to go behind after 13 minutes. Krystian Pearce gave away an unnecessary free kick with a foul on Angol 26 yards from goal. Angol fancied the free kick himself and his shot was parried away by Bobby Olejnik. The ball came back to Angol who crossed in, and Mal Benning’s poor clearance only reached Dan Happe who smashed a shot against the right post from 11 yards before Wilkinson put the rebound over the bar. In a first half of few other chances, the Stags created a good chance after 37 minutes. Maynard sent CJ Hamilton away down the left, Hamilton comfortably outpaced his defender and pulled back a perfect cross from the byline to Maynard just inside the area. Maynard went for placement and he sidefooted a left footed shot towards the bottom right corner of the net. It was accurate but keeper Lawrence Vigouroux was able to get down and tip it wide at full stretch. Maynard needed to put a bit more power into his effort. Good play from Hamilton. Orient took the lead after 45 minutes and it was a dreadful goal to concede. Angol played the ball out to James Dayton on the right, level with the edge of the area. Dayton wasn’t closed down by Mal Benning and created a yard for himself to shoot from a tight angle on the right and beat Olejnik at his near post. A really bad mistake by Olejnik, who should not have been beaten at his near post. The second goal in succession where the keeper should have done better actually following Morecambe’s equaliser late on on Saturday. Benning also could have done better. Olejnik’s mistake, but in truth Mansfield have been making far too mistakes at the back and going all the way back to pre-season. The Stags equalised after 60 minutes. A great break by Hamilton, now playing on the right, to win a corner. Benning sent in the perfect delivery and Kelland Watts attacked it at the near post to head in from 5 yards. Great for the Stags to score from a set piece like that, something Mansfield haven’t done enough times this season. It was Watts’ first goal in senior football. It came after Maynard had headed straight at the keeper after 55 minutes and shot straight at the keeper after 58 minutes. Benning pushed forward and tried his luck with a shot from 20 yards but the sting was taken out of it by a block and it was easily saved by the keeper. Orient regained the lead after 74 minutes. James Brophy slid a clever ball forward on the left for substitute Jordan Maguire-Drew who chipped a magnificent cross over Olejnik onto the goalline where Benning, in trying to clear, could only knock the ball into his net. If Benning hadn’t cleared, Angol would almost certainly have chested it into the empty net. The Stags rarely looked like equalising apart from one chance after 90+2 minutes as Olejnik’s long free kick into the Orient box was headed out to Hamilton who fired wide from 16 yards with a couple of Stags players also close to getting a deflection on it to turn it into the net. A poor performance with no-one playing well. In the last four games, the Stags have played teams who will probably all finish in the bottom third of the table and failed to beat any of them. Late equalisers conceded against Carlisle and Morecambe have dented already fragile confidence. The Stags play mid-table Newport on Saturday before a run of games against teams near the top of the table. Somehow the Stags need to find some good form from somewhere. Mansfield made one change to the side that drew at Morecambe. Harry Charsley took a bang on the nose on Saturday and wasn’t well enough to start but took his place on the bench. In came Hamilton, in a 3-4-3 formation with Rose, Maynard and Hamilton up front. I had expected Neal Bishop to be rested having played on Saturday (he was rested for the last Tuesday night game with the manager suggesting he needed to be rested after the Saturday game) and I expected Jack Evans to start his first game, but Bishop started alongside Tomlinson in central midfield. Joe Riley, who had to go off with injury on Saturday, started again but had to go off again here at half time after “tightening up”. Hayden White played for the reserves on Tuesday afternoon and might come into contention to start on Saturday. FULL REPORT IN THE MATCH CENTRE ----------------------- Mal Benning own goal sees Mansfield Town beaten at Leyton Orient chad.co.uk, Tues 11 Feb 2020 Mansfield Town failed to increase the gap between themselves and the League Two relegation zone after a 2-1 defeat at Leyton Orient tonight. Newcastle loanee Kell Watts cancelled out James Dayton’s opener before Mal Benning’s own goal in the 74th minute sealed victory for the Londoners. The struggling Stags headed to the capital desperate to end a dismal run of just two wins in 16 league outings and four without a win. Basement boys Stevenage lost at Bradford City but defeat meant Graham Coughlan’s charges failed to further increase their 10-point gap above the dreaded drop zone. https://www.chad.co.uk/sport/football/mal-benning-own-goal-sees-mansfield-town-beaten-leyton-orient-1476921 Coughlan made one change from the side which were held by a late leveller at Morecambe last time out. Harry Charsley dropped to the bench and was replaced by CJ Hamilton in a change of system. The Stags started brightly down south and Nicky Maynard thought he had opened the scoring early on but was denied by the linesman’s flag. Stags then had a massive let-off as Daniel Happe hit the post for the O’s before Conor Wilkinson lashed the rebound over. Lee Angol almost scored against his former club as he fired wide, then Ryan Sweeney could only nod over for the visitors before Bobby Olejnik kept out Wilkinson’s header. Down the other end Maynard was kept out by ex-Swindon stopper Lawrence Vigouroux after a fine counter. However, the O’s struck on the stroke of half-time. It was a super strike as Dayton cut inside before beating Olejnik at his near post. Just before the hour Maynard was frustrated by Chilean keeper Vigouroux. First the striker could only fire straight at the keeper before seeing a fine curling effort well kept out after catching the hosts on the counter. But the Stags’ endeavour finally paid off on the hour mark. Watts rose highest to convert Mal Benning’s pinpoint delivery and level proceedings with a fine header. Provider Benning then tried his luck from range but his deflected effort nestled safely in Vigouroux’s grasp. But Benning got on the scoresheet at the wrong end as substitute Jordan Maguire-Drew’s teasing cross went in off the defender with 16 minutes to go. James Clarke, who came off the bench at half-time for the visitors, lashed his left-footed effort wide. Benning was desperate to make amends, but fired wide of the mark late on. Hamilton nearly nicked a point at the death but narrowly missed the target in added time. It left Stags with just two points from four successive games against fellow strugglers ahead of Saturday's visit of Newport County. LEYTON ORIENT: Vigouroux, Marsh, Coulson, Happe, Brophy, Dayton (Wright, 66), Casse, Clay, Wilkinson, Angol, Johnson (Maguire-Drew, 70). Unused subs: Sergeant, Widdowson, Judd, Kyprianou, Sweeney. MANSFIELD: Olejnik, Sweeney, Pearce, Watts, Riley (Clarke, 45), Bishop, Tomlinson, Benning (Charsley, 88), Hamilton, Rose, Maynard. Unused subs: Stone, Preston, Evans, Knowles, Davies. REFEREE: Josh Smith. ATTENDANCE: 3,587 (181 away). --------------------- Leyton Orient beat Mansfield Town to go three unbeaten in League Two guardian-series.co.uk, By Nat Goodlad https://www.guardian-series.co.uk/sport/leytonorient/18228132.leyton-orient-beat-mansfield-town-go-three-unbeaten-league-two/ Leyton Orient bounced back from their late draw against Macclesfield Town on Saturday by beating Mansfield Town 2-1 at home. James Dayton had the O’s in front at the break before Kelland Watts’ header on the hour levelled things up. Mansfield left-back Mal Benning provided the crucial goal but at the wrong end as he headed past his own keeper under pressure from Lee Angol. In a bid to keep things fresh, Ross Embleton made a number of changes from the side that started the draw against Macclesfield at the weekend. Ruel Sotiriou and Marvin Ekpiteta were forced out through injury and were replaced by Danny Johnson and Josh Coulson, while Dayton and Angol also came into the side in place of Jordan Maguire-Drew and Josh Wright. Mansfield had the ball in the net with only three minutes on the clock when Nicky Maynard brought down a long ball and slotted past Lawrence Vigouroux, but his effort was ruled out for offside. After that near-miss, Orient got themselves into the game and, after having a penalty appeal for handball turned away, Ouss Cisse fired another warning shot when his effort from distance was deflected wide. An even better opportunity to take the lead then went begging as the O’s recycled play from Angol’s saved free-kick by swinging it into the area. Dan Happe then volleyed against the post and the ball hit Conor Wilkinson before he could react properly. Mansfield were forcing Orient to be patient with their rigid defence, but the waiting game paid off for the home side on the stroke of half-time. After passing the ball around the edge of the area for about a minute, Craig Clay sprayed the ball out to Dayton, who managed to squeeze his effort under Bobby Olejnik at the near post. Orient continued to be the more aggressive of the two sides going forward in the second half and had chances to double their tally, but Cisse volleyed wide when well positioned and Wilkinson was denied a penalty when he felt he was pushed over. A lapse in concentration then came back to bite the hosts as, on a rare foray forward, Mansfield won a corner which was easily and simply headed home by Watts from an in-swinging delivery. The Stags were starting to have a bit more joy going forward, but none of their efforts were really providing a test for Orient as both Maynard and Benning had shots comfortably stopped by Vigouroux. However, it was to be Benning who gifted the lead back to Orient when a cross was floated in by substitute Jordan Maguire-Drew and he headed past his own keeper while under pressure from Angol. Orient had chances to kill the game off in the latter stages as Maguire-Drew curled over from a free-kick and Clay’s cross in towards Angol was gathered by Olejnik. Any further goals weren’t needed though, as Orient hung on to make it three games unbeaten. The win moves the O’s up to 17th in the League Two table, six points clear of Mansfield and only three shy of the top half ahead of this weekend’s trip to play-off hopefuls Cheltenham Town. Orient line-up: Vigouroux, Coulson, Clay, Wilkinson, Dayton, Happe, Brophy, Angol, Marsh, Cisse, Johnson Subs: Sargeant, Widdowson, Maguire-Drew, Judd, Kyprianou, Sweeney, Wright ---------------------- |
Latest | February 2020