Harriers respond in best possible way at Mansfield

The Harriers responded in the best way conceivable to Tuesday nights woeful defeat at Fleetwood Town with the stunning first half victory against in form Mansfield Town.  Early goals from Kyle Storer and Nick Wright put us into a commanding lead within the first eight minutes and then a penalty later on put away by Lee Vaughan was the icing on the cake.  In the second half Mansfields' Louis Briscoe was sent off for a crunching tackle on Vaughan that left the defender out cold for a while.

After facing criticism for sticking with players that weren't up to the job on Tuesday the Harriers manager, Steve Burr, made wholesale changes to the side with Marc Williams and Scott Phelan getting demoted to the bench.  Tom Marshall left the pick completely while Michael Briscoe and Mickey Demetriou came to the bench for the first time this season.  James Vincent was out injured so this meant a start for Luke Medley against his former employers.

Following a top speed start from the Harriers it took only six minutes for the 'Men in Red' to take the lead.  A short corner was played by Callum Gittings to Lee Vaughan who then sent it over to the far post for the waiting Kyle Storer to nod home with ease.  A minute later and the lead was doubled.

Again Gittings played his part in the goal when he laid the ball perfectly into the path of Nick Wrights run.  With just the keeper to beat he clinically fired it past Alan Marriott, the Mansfield keeper.

Most teams would have sat back on the two goal cushion but not this inspired Harriers team fresh from a lamblasting by Steve Burr after the last game.  Luke Medley tried his luck from the edge of the area but his fierce shot was straight into the keepers arms.  Kyle Storer then tried to add to his goal but this time Marriott scrambled his effort away for a corner.

Vaughan then became heavily involved in the game for different reasons.  First his shot went across the face of goal and then just seconds later Mike Williams was ruthlessly bought down by Lindon Meikle in the area.  Up stepped Vaughan to take the penalty and sent Marriott completely the wrong way for our third and final goal of the game.

Soon after the Stags manager, Paul Cox, made a double substitution and withdrew Meikle and Anthony Howell from the game to bring on Paul Bolland and Jon Worthington.

The change seemed to encourage the home side slightly and they could have scored from a well taken free kick that went through the wall but luckily no home player was near enough to touch the ball home.

The first half drew to an end with the Harriers well on top and almost cruising even though Mansfield were showing signs of coming back into the game.

As expected Mansfield came back out for the second period with the full intention of rescuing their missing points.  Sadly for them we too showed no intention of letting those points slip easily through our fingers and that, in the most part, was down to Danny Lewis.

Ross Dyer found a way through the Harriers defence and fired in a shot that had 'GOAL!' written large on it.  Danny somehow managed push the shot onto the bar and then pounced quickly on the rebound as it bounced down onto the ground in front of him.  He was in action again seconds later when he saved a speculative shot from the on loan Oxford Utd striker, Matt Green.

We were still on the lookout for a fourth goal and Nick Wright should have done better when he raced onto Medleys' through ball but then, instead of shooting, he passed it too far in front of Jamille Matt for his team mate to score either.  Gittings too had a great chance to get on the scoresheet but his shot crashed against the underside of bar and down into the clutches of the keeper.

Fifteen minutes into the half and Mansfield found themselves down to ten men.

Louis Briscoe went in over the top on Lee Vaughan and sent him crashing to the ground where he lay motionless for the next minute.  The referee had no hesitation in showing Briscoe the red card and dismissing him from the field of play.  That was the second time in a week that Lee had been singled out for rough treatment and the second time the guilty player had been sent off.  Again to Lees' credit he showed no sign of retaliation once he had recovered.

Steve Burr could see now that we had won the points and decided to consolidate in midfield and also bring on fresh legs up front.  Off went Medley to be replaced with Marc Williams and then soon after Scott Phelan came on for the impressive Callum Gittings with just a minute later Mickey Demetriou making a long overdue debut for Jamille Matt.

With those changes we managed to hold out until the final whistle and the inevitable, by now, win.  The Harriers had given the fans the best possible response to the Fleetwood game and now it's back home on Tuesday evening for a televised game at home against a struggling Grimsby side that also found themselves hammered at home today.  This time to managerless Wrexham.

I hope, and can't see, Grimsby don't react the same way as we did today.

 Goals for Harriers: Storer 6, Wright 7, Vaughan 23 (pen)

REFEREE:

Mr S Duncan Newcastle