The Toolstation Northern Counties East F. L. Premier Division 2019-2020
Tuesday, Nov. 12th 2019.
AFC MANSFIELD 2 v 2 SILSDEN A.F.C.
Duggan 45, Webster 49. Sorhaindo 55, Everingham 89. Att. 50
COBBYDALERS SHARE THE POINTS AFTER SECOND HALF COMEBACK
The Cobbydalers made their first ever visit to The Forest Town Arena to take on AFC Mansfield on Tuesday night. The home side were quickly out of the blocks with Ross Duggan coming close to earning the Bulls an early lead, but he couldn’t squeeze his low drive into the bottom corner from a tight angle, instead firing wide.
The Cobbydalers looked dangerous on the break, and Jordan Annable did well to block two efforts on goal from Laurence Sorhaindo after some excellent interchanges between Luke Mountford and Khurram Shazad.
Jack Warner was the next to come close for the Bulls and on the end of a dangerous in-swinging ball by Tom Slone his headed connection sent the ball looping just over Ben Higginson’s bar.
Duggan’s second half-chance of the game saw him neatly bring the ball onto his favoured foot, but his low effort was well stopped by Josh Brown, who along with Illingworth, were winning the aerial battle.
Danger man Duggan had the ball in the net after a swift turn in the Silsden penalty area but the linesman’s flag was raised for offside a team-mate was deemed offside and directly in the line of fire.
However, on the stroke of half-time, the Bulls finally edged ahead, as McGuire’s thumping half-way line header allowed DUGGAN to chase down and win the ball off Josh Kaine before slotting underneath Higginson.
AFC then started the second half just how the finished the first, and Brandon WEBSTER scored his third goal in four games when his 20-yard speculative volley looped over the Silsden ‘keeper, who was three yards of the goal line.
The Cobbydalers pulled a goal back six minutes later, when Laurence SORHAIDO found the net as he took advantage of AFC’s inability to clear Illingworth throw-in into the penalty area. Brown almost brought the game level instantly, but he glanced a free header wide from ten yards.
Just minutes after coming on for Duggan, Grant Ryan should have restored the two-goal cushion but squandered a one-on-one as Higginson’s leapt to his left to keep his effort out.
With five minutes left to play, Silsden were left scratching their heads after a slick move involving Mitchell, and Everingham saw Sorhaindo chest the ball perfectly for Kirby, but the strike struck the crossbar from the edge of the penalty area.
However the visitors did eventually draw level, as Mark EVERINGHAM slotted a free-kick under AFC’s four-man wall who all jumped in unison, into the bottom corner with just one minute of normal time remaining.
Silsden’s Luke Hudson, who had only just come on for the visitors, was shown a straight red card in injury time having spent only four minutes on the pitch: his altercation leaving a Mansfield player on the ground holding his head.
Danny Forrest was delighted with the response of his players after going two-nil down. “There were some very good performances all round and we try to move the ball swiftly on the wet surface. Duggan was a constant threat but we managed to keep him in check. We might have snatched a victory late on but a draw was probably a fair result.
AFC MANSFIELD. | Warhurst (GK), Mears, Slone, McGuire, Annable, Darker, Warner, Wilson, Duggan (Ryan 75′), Buxton (C), Webster
Unused subs | Lucas, Dawson, Stancliffe (GK)
SILSDEN AFC. | Higginson (GK), Brown, Everingham, Kaine (C), Illingworth, Barnes, Taylor-Mountford (Blackwell 76′), Mitchell, Kirby (Hudson ?’), Shazad (Wademan 76′), Sorhaindo
