One Call Stadium: Mansfield Town v Newport County (Saturday 18th November 2023)

November afternoon in Nottinghamshire as Mansfield Town took on Newport County in the EFL League Two.
Mansfield came into the match, somewhat astonishingly, as the only unbeaten side in the top four tiers of English football. A sentiment for the great work Nigel Clough and his players have done thus far in the season. In this run they have achieved 8 wins and 8 draws, of which The Stags have won the last 4 on the bounce.
For me this is another match of watching Newport County play! That makes 3 for the season, a loss to Harrogate Town at home and a victory away to goal shy Cheltenham Town in the EFL Trophy have brought mixed fortunes so far. Since that night in Gloucestershire, it’s been 1 win, 2 draws and two losses for the Exciles as they hang around the lower part of the League Two table.
On the day then, and to their credit Newport started the game well and pushed forward. But this was only for the very start of the game, as a wonderful ball from inside the Mansfield half found Rhys Oates willing to run after the ball on the right side all the way to the byline to put an early cross along the box. The initial ball was cut out but wasn’t far enough away from the danger area as Davis Keillor-Dunn pounced on some hesitant Newport defending and slung a shot under Nick Townsend and it was 1-0 after 4 minutes.
This completely shell shocked Newport and it looked like all plans for the game were firmly out of the window in the early stages. Mansfield were comfortable after this and were controlling the game how they wanted it. From this it was clear why this side were unbeaten in the league. Their ability to control the match in all the phases of play and reduce Newport to virtually nothing for the remainder of the half.
On the half hour Oates was causing problems again, this time on the left, and gets the wrong side of the defender just inside the box and gets a penalty for the home side. Potentially quite soft watching it back but that’s the risk you take when you’re on the wrong side. Nonetheless, if Newport were hard done by, Townsend got them out of trouble with a smart save from Oates’ penalty kick. On the rebound, Oates and Keillor-Dunn appear to get in each others way and put each other off, Newport manage to hold the ball out for a goal kick.
Just before the ending to the half, Stags’ right back Callum Johnson inadvertently hit the crossbar from a aimed cross that was near no one in the box, but a slight moment of anxiety for The Exiles.
Into half time and Mansfield were deserved leaders at the interval with Newport not really in the contest. The second half did start promisingly for the Exiles with a tame shot aimed straight at Christy Pym in the goal.
And very reminiscent of the first half, Mansfield scored early to knock the stuffing out of Newport, the ball lost just inside their own half. The ball came to George Maris, who took his time and found that man Keillor-Dunn with space to run into and he calmly slotted home past Townsend to make it 2-0. The shot quite unexpectedly went into the keepers’ near post which completely wrong footed him but regardless, still in the back of the net.
The game looked too far gone for Newport who showed not many signs of competing with Mansfield after this with Mansfield able to cruise out the remainder of the match.
And that’s how it finished in Nottinghamshire, with Mansfield continuing that incredible unbeaten run in the league and remain in the automatic promotion spots. For Newport, they remain above the relegation places but certainly not the position they would hope to be in.