Cheltenham Town FC

REPORT: Mansfield 1-1 Cheltenham Town

Cheltenham Town salvaged a 1-1 draw with Mansfield thanks to an outstanding effort from defender Daniel O’Shaughnessy late on.

After an uneventful first half, Mansfield took the lead shortly after the restart through Mitchell Rose’s goal.

With just 11 minutes to go, though, O’Shaughnessy let fly from at least 30 yards to earn a creditable draw in Nottinghamshire.

The result means The Robins remain unbeaten after a solid start to life back in the English Football League.

Mansfield had the better of the opening 10 minutes as The Stags kept possession well but, whilst they earned a couple of corners, they weren’t able to create any clear cut chances.

It wasn’t until the 20 minute mark where Cheltenham created the first real chance as a quickly taken free kick found the head of Harry Pell, but his header was fantastically saved by Scott Shearer.

As the half hour mark approached, Cheltenham had another good opportunity when the ball fell to Amari Morgan-Smith after some pinball in the box, but his low shot was saved well.

Minutes later Matt Green outmuscled Pell in the Cheltenham half and got a powerful shot away from distance, but Griffiths pulled off an outstanding save to keep the game at 0-0. 

In the only other chance before half time, Morgan-Smith’s cross found Dan Holman at the back post, but the striker wasn’t able to get a clean shot away after he had initially brought the ball down well.

After the break it took Rose just four minutes to give Mansfield the lead with a tap in after a good run and cross from Green.

On the hour mark Gary brought on Jack Barthram and Jordan Cranston to try and get his side back on the front foot, but even though Cheltenham grew into the game and were having lots of the ball they weren’t creating clear-cut chances.

75 minutes into the game, Morgan-Smith was fed through on goal by Dan Whitehead, but even though he managed to cut inside he was tackled just before he could get his shot away.

Four minutes later The Robins were level when Daniel O’Shaughnessy ran forward with the ball from the halfway line, was given space and hit a thunderous shot from range past Shearer to get his contender for goal of the season in early. 

Even though there were 8 minutes of injury time, neither side were able to find a winner and the game finished 1-1.

Mansfield Line-Up: S Shearer, R Bennett, M Benning, L Collins (C), G Taft, C Clements, M Green, K Hurst (D Henderson, 90), K Howkins, M Rose, D Rose (A Hemmings, 69).

Unused subs: B Jensen, A Chapman, J Baxendale, C Hamilton, J McGuire.

Cheltenham Line-Up: R Griffiths, J Jennings (J Cranston, 60), D Parslow (C), D O’Shaughnessy, E Suliman, H Pell, D Whitehead (J Rowe, 78), B Waters (J Barthram, 60), A Morgan-Smith, D Wright, D Holman.

Unused subs: C Kitscha, A Hall, J Lymn.