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Ryan Owens reports on his side's 1-3 defeat at FC Clacton on Saturday 5 January 2008
The squad travelled to Clacton to re-play the game from the start of the season where they played 2 ineligible players. This was our first game since the 15th December and only 1 hard training session in between then and the match.
I think these factors played a huge part as on the day the Melford lads where second to everything and deservedly got beaten by a spirited Clacton side who are struggling for points at the bottom of the league.
The game started evenly with both teams looking to play football on a pitch that the groundsman did a superb job on getting the game on. Clacton where the first to settle and took the lead when a cross into the box was met by the tall centre forward to head home the first goal of the afternoon.
The goal seemed to settle Clacton with Melford not being able to carve out anything rewarding from the first half. Clacton were unlucky not to take a bigger league into the break as a superb free kick from the edge of the box was saved superbly by Mansfield in the Melford goal to give them hope for the second half.
The next goal was going to be crucial and unfortunately a sloppy pass in the midfield led to the Clacton forward bursting through the defensive line to fire past Mansfield to give the Clacton team a healthy advantage.
There seemed to be not a lot left in the Melford tanks and as a result the third goal of the afternoon was conceded when a long ball from the defense was dispatched by the Clacton forward to give them an unassailable 3 nil advantage.
This was so unlike the Melford performances before Christmas and finally with 15 minutes to go, Melford started to play some of the football that we have seen previous. A great ball from Statham picked out Alston on the wing who after rounding the keeper unselfishly squared the ball for SIMPSON to fire the ball home to give Melford some reward for the afternoon.
I thi nk we'll put this game down to the break over Christmas and the lack of some training during the festive period. However we have set high standards for ourselves this season and this month we have 3 hard league games which means we must improve and get back to winning ways quickly.
There were good debuts from Crissell and Bennett which bodes well for the future.
Squad: Mansfield, Simpson, Dack, Crissell, Green, Alston, Statham, Taylor, Hardy, Clarke, Smith Subs: Barr, Bennett, Owens
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