The second half was a much more relaxed affair with the only real surprise in the first twenty minutes being the withdrawal, by Mansfield, of the hard working Colin Larkin to be replaced by Junior Mendes. I can understand the jeers of derision from the Mansfield fans especially as it should have been the ineffective Christie that should have been replaced.
By one of those strange twists of fate though Mansfield drew level with a very dubious free kick.
A 50/50 ball on the edge of the area saw it bounce off the turf onto
Danny Williams arm. Although it was obviously ball to hand the Mansfield fans screamed "Handball" at the ref and, being easily swayed, he gave a free kick that was curled into the far corner out of Stuart's reach.
In response Ian Britton bought on John Williams for his debut in place of the lack lustre
Andy Bishop. Straight away the tactics changed to the Broughton style with plenty of long ball played in for Willo to run onto.
This seemed to un-settle Mansfield.
Our first chance to get the lead back was wasted when
Sean Flynn found himself in a one on one with the keeper. Bo was to his right and better placed but instead of passing Flynnie blazed the ball over the goal and hit the top of the stand, disturbing deposits of pigeon droppings onto the crowd below.
Flynnie did his usual push ups. I'd rather that he had come over to the fans and apologised for his stupidity.
The lead was regained soon after though when Kenny Coleman took the ball into the area only to see his weak shot pushed out by Pilkington. After a bit of goal mouth ping pong the ball fell again for Kenny who's weak shot this time was stopped by Curtis's hand.
The ref pointed to the spot and, after a bit of argie bargie and a few bookings, Bo coolly slotted the ball into the corner from the penalty spot.
To their credit Mansfield never gave up and Disley almost got them back on level terms when his header was cleared off the line by
Adam Willis.
With the minutes ticking down Willo almost opened his account for us when he locked onto a long pass from the back. Just as he was about to shoot our old friend Dave Artell managed to rob him of the ball to deny him the chance.
Another good start to a new season. We have yet to lose an opening game but our next League game at Darlington will be a harder nut to crack.
I don't expect a positive result at Portman Rd on Wednesday but feel that we should get at least a point at the Reynolds Ampitheatre next week.