Mansfield took the derby honours against Notts County
Sub Green delivers to seal derby
WHEN Darius Henderson scored the third and decisive goal, Mansfield manager Adam Murray embarked on a touchline sprint which almost broke land speed records.
It was with justification too given this derby victory ended a sequence of four home games without a win and also a goal.
The fact it came against Notts County, their east Midlands rivals, made it all the sweeter in a game which turned on the introduction of Matt Green.
The striker came off the bench in the 54th minute and 45 seconds later he had put Mansfield ahead before scoring a second from the penalty spot in injury-time.
It maintained a remarkable record against County with his double salvo taking him to four goals in the last two meetings between these sides.
And when Henderson made his contribution it was the cue for Murray to show he still has a considerable turn of pace.
“I wasn’t thinking,” he said. “I’m not sure it was a sprint either, it was more like a three-quarter jog.
“But seriously, I said I was going to embrace and feel everything this season.
“That’s what I am doing and it’s moments like this that you want to enjoy and be part of.
“People are lucky I didn’t run onto the pitch.
“But I knew it was going to be a tough game because we knew their shape would be hard to break down.
“They’ve got the player of the month (Jon Stead) up top and he’s been in excellent form. They are a strong outfit.
“We knew at some point we may have to tweak our shape and I wasn’t surprised when Notts County dropped off because we changed it and put them on the back foot.
“And as soon as I felt we got the edge in the second half, it was time to go for the jugular.
“Fair play to the subs who came on because they did just that and I would call it an inspired substitution.”
Victory here ended Notts’ remarkable run of four successive away wins, but their manager John
Sheridan will look back at the opening 25 minutes when they could and should have taken the lead themselves.
Jonathan Forte forced Scott Shearer to tip his shot onto the post, and was also denied by the Mansfield goalkeeper when left clear through on goal.
Stead also saw Lee Collins clear off the line as Notts threatened to make amends for their 5-0 hammering at the One Call Stadium last April.
But their hopes of redemption came unstuck when Green, with his first touch, latched onto Pat Hoban’s header and his deflected shot crept past Adam Collin.
Alex Rodman looked to have salvaged a point, but Green struck from the spot in stoppage time after Matt Tootle fouled Mal Benning.
And there was still time for Henderson to capitalise on some awful defending even though his shot was also deflected past Collin.
Afterwards, Notts manager Sheridan did not pull any punches when assessing how his side fell apart.
“I am very disappointed for the supporters,” he said. “The biggest downer was the manner of the goals we gave away.
“It was ridiculous how we conceded three goals. I said to them at half-time ‘I can talk all I want, but the game is there for you to go and win it’.
“My teamtalk was a simple one. Go and win the game and we will be in the top three with a game in hand.
“Players are a different breed these days. We need somebody who is going to be ugly for 90 minutes and get on players’ backs.
“It’s me all the time and I am getting sick of saying it. We need to sort it out because we have thrown that game away.”