A spirited performance from the Stags sees them knocked out of the Papa John’s Trophy after narrow defeat at the hands of Sheffield Wednesday

Florian Kamberi’s late winner in the 93rd minute saw Mansfield Town fall to their second defeat in the competition and subsequently bow out at the group stage phase.

The Stags’ very youthful looking side put in a fantastic shift but two costly errors at the back denied them from taking anything out of the game against the Owls.

Nigel Clough started George Shelvey who made his second appearance in the competition. The hosts lined up with a back four consisting of James Clarke, Ferrand Rawson, who is eligible to play in the Papa John’s Trophy but not in the league due to his suspension, George Cooper and Ryan Burke.

Harry Charsley, Keaton Ward, Jason Law and Stephen Quinn were the midfield four with Danny Johnson and Tyrese Sinclair starting up front for the Stags.

Within the first 30 seconds of the game, Clough’s men could have found themselves 1-0 down. Shelvey’s clearance rebounded off Saido Berahino, but fortunately for the goalkeeper, the ball went wide of the right post.

Moments later, the Stags found themselves on the front foot as Law picked out Charsley with a pass. However, the midfielder’s effort was blocked well by the Wednesday defence.

Danny Johnson found Sinclair in some space on the wing as the amber and blues looked to find a way through. The forward’s delivery into the box was poor as his cross went over Joe Wildsmith’s goal and out for a goal kick.

Theo Corbeanu, who troubled Burke all game long, found some space to release a shot on goal. His effort was spilled by Shelvey with Berahino there to pounce. However, Rawson did well to block the effort and prevent a goalscoring opportunity.

Both Danny Johnson for the Stags and Marvin Johnson for the Owls delivered inviting balls only for none of their teammates to connect with them as two good chances went abegging for both sides.

As the first half went on, both sides had good chances to open the scoring but weren’t clinical enough in the final third.

However, the Stags had two fantastic chances at the end of the half which they failed to convert. Firstly, Danny Johnson found Sinclair clean through on goal with the youngster failing to hit the target, and then secondly, Sinclair returned the favour to his strike partner who failed to direct his effort goalwards.

At the start of the second period, Sinclair had a handful of chances that he was unable to finish as his efforts were comfortably saved by Wildsmith.

In the 63rd minute, the deadlock was broken as Wednesday took the lead. Shelvey came out to punch the ball clear, however, he failed to connect with it which allowed Wing to head the ball into an empty net.

Five minutes later, Stags equalised through a fantastic move. Sinclair’s beautiful back-heel found Quinn who smashed his effort past Wildsmith to level the game up at 1-1.

Mansfield pushed on for a second with a wave of attacks all mounting to little as the men in amber and blue failed to score.

With a minute of added time remaining, Corbeanu delivered a teasing ball across the face of goal. An unmarked Kamberi finally got his opportunity as he smashed his shot into the roof of the net to win the game for Wednesday.

The 2-1 defeat didn’t truly reflect Mansfield’s performance. Of course, the goalkeeping error for Wednesday’s first goal and the defensive error for the visitors’ second goal should not have happened, however, the youthful side that was fielded will give Nigel Clough a selection headache ahead of the upcoming league game against Oldham Athletic.

James Clarke in at right-back played brilliantly, winning most of his duels, playing brilliant passes and showing the much-needed grit and desire.

George Cooper, who made his first senior appearance for the Stags, got stuck in from minute 1 and only an injury dampened his evening as he was substituted at the start of the second half.

All in all, it was definitely a good experience for all of the players as they gave their all for 90 minutes. After their elimination from the Papa John’s Trophy, attention will now turn to climbing the league table with a massive six-pointer up next.

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