Notts brutally brought back to earth by rampant Stags

Amazing how quickly a positive atmosphere can evaporate, eh?

Following Notts County’s great start to the season, which saw a solid 2-0 win at Stevenage and a stunning 2-1 win at Championship side Huddersfield in the League Cup, more than seven thousand Notts fans came through the Meadow Lane turnstiles to watch what they hoped would be a gutsy, positive and possibly fruitful performance from the Magpies against Mansfield Town, their local rivals.

At 9:45pm, what we ended up with was a nearly funereal mood as Notts were outplayed, outmuscled and outscored on our own patch, with nearly three thousand Stags fans going barmy in the away end – and rightfully so, given that their team cruised to an ultimately straightforward 2-0 win.

Defeats are always hard to swallow, but by including the fact that the performance was so meek, so bland, and that it was against a bitter rival that will now claim bragging rights, it makes it all the more difficult.

Inevitably the early stages were all about getting stuck in, something that Mansfield were always going to do. Three crunching tackles came in the first two minutes, with Nathan Thomas’s clatter with Civard Sprockel saw the latter rolling around in agony and the former shown an early yellow card.

On six minutes, the visitors could have easily gone ahead after Thierry Audel gifted the ball to Chapman. He found Matt Green, who set up Nathan Thomas in front of goal, but Roy Carroll pulled off a wonderful save, flinging his body in the way and deflecting the ball onto the bar.

Notts could barely get out their own half for the first quarter-hour as Mansfield pressed emphatically, but on 18 minutes they had their first concrete chance as a Hunt clearance clipped Pearce and landed in the path of Julian Jenner, whose powerful shot whizzed wide of the side netting.

Sprockel was then booked three minutes later for handling on the edge of the box, and Ryan Tafazolli was then booked for infringement, clattering into Carroll and dropping him into the net.

Stanley Aborah set up Notts' best move of the half when he released Jenner to lash a low ball into the box which Jon Stead connected with, drawing a good save from opposition stopper Brian Jensen.

For Notts’s occasional flashes of quality, Mansfield fully deserved their lead when it came nine minutes before the break. Green released Clements into the box, and the latter bore down on goal and curled a low effort into Carroll’s bottom-right corner, sending the away contingent into delirium and the home fans into mourning.

A double change for Notts ensued at the break when Jimmy Spencer replaced Curtis Thompson and Graham Burke came on for Kyle Da Silva on the left wing, the intended formation a 4-4-2.

The tone was set for the rest of the evening when Sprockel suffered an injury just three minutes after the restart, as Haydn Hollis had to be subbed on. Notts had no more substitutions left.

Despite this hindering situation, Notts began the second half brightly as Spencer shot over and Jenner drew a decent save from Jensen.

At the other end, Green set up Thomas for a shot from a right angle that Carroll was forced to turn round at the near post.

The action yo-yoed between the two sides for a period as, on 53 minutes, County’s best move so far saw Stead send Jenner in on goal, Jensen smothering his low finish.

In the 67th minute, Green was inches away from being able to reach a Jack Thomas cross from the left and head home from close range.

Notts then countered with Burke cutting a low cross into the path of Spencer, and a tap-in is all it would have taken to put us level – but Malvind Benning bailed Mansfield out with a stunning sliding interception on the line.

The Pies soon cooled down and ran out of steam as the persevering Stags struck their match-killer with nine minutes to go, Benning whipping a long free kick from the left and Tafazolli rising virtually unmarked to head home just inside the post.

Many Notts fans had seen enough at this point and, over the next ten minutes, seats were vacated, while some trouble flared up at the far-left end of the Kop after it appeared that a Mansfield fan ran across to start a fight.

The Kop faithful all turned to watch the action on their left, well aware that, by that point, there was nothing really worth watching on the pitch any more. Notts had been defeated. There was little to suggest that they could pull back even just one goal, and when the final whistle blew, the procession out of the ground began.

It’s early days, of course, but given that the last few years have been dross for many of the home-attending Notts fans, and with hopes and expectations sky-high for those entering Meadow Lane on Friday evening, this was not good enough.

Ricardo Moniz and his charges will need to go back to the drawing board, because in League Two, many teams will play how Mansfield did - and if we keep playing to their tactics and meekly surrendering, they will win like Mansfield did.

(Credit to Dan Westwell for the image - and congrats on the result, you totally deserve it)