Men's 2nd XI Vs Mansfield 3

At what first seemed like a chilly afternoon, turned into a rather warm day with a glaring astro beneath the feet of South as they were welcomed to Mansfield

South started with the ball as Mansfield chased.

Mansfield won the ball back pretty quickly but was very short lived as our mids got it back within seconds. Finding loads of space in the attacking quarter. South could move the ball around without much threat, leaving Alex Cavan wide open for a Classic Gary Pickering thread through for a deflection that hit the netting within the first 5.

Not long after South won a shorty with Alex hitting the crossbar above the keeper’s head, pinging down and out. (Potential VAR needed), only for a second attempt as South were given another. This time a successful flick. 2-0 South.

As the half continued a possible relaxed aura allowed Mansfield to claw back 2 goals by working down the wings and to top D, the first of which was a decent reverse by their striker. 2-2. Little did they know this was all that would be allowed as South switched back on.

The half finished with a good string of play finding Alex on the left of the goals to finish with a reverse. 3-2 South.

South sat in the goal box getting a stern talking to by our captain, Ben Ryder - basically instructing is to pull up our socks. We all agreed that the second half should be ours.

The second half began with Mansfield fielding only 9 players on the field.

This was clearly a problem as South dominated the pitch with goal after goal with a particularly good play leading to young Tom Brackenbury running up to top D and clobbering one top bins. At this point 5-2 South. Mansfield came back to full strength but with some good attacking play, South were in it to win it with 2 more goals coming from Robbie with clinical finishing and another 2 from Alex.

A great win from South with everyone moving the ball around swiftly and taking opportunities to put the ball away secured a superb 9-2 win.