Stags play out a goalless draw away at Harrogate Town as weather conditions heavily impact proceedings

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Mansfield Town and Harrogate Town failed to find the back of the net as they played out a goalless draw on a blustery evening in North Yorkshire.

The amber and blues’ winning run comes to an end but they carry on their unbeaten run with a 0-0 draw against the Sulphurites. A stalemate at the EnviroVent Stadium was also the Stags’ best result against Harrogate after four consecutive defeats against the Yorkshire outfit.

Nigel Clough named an unchanged side from the 2-0 home victory against Leyton Orient at the weekend. Nathan Bishop started in goal with a back four of Elliott Hewitt at right-back, John-Joe O’Toole and Oli Hawkins as the centre-back pairing and Stephen McLaughlin playing at left-back.

In midfield, Ryan Stirk sat just in front of the defensive in a defensive midfielder role, Ollie Clarke and Stephen Quinn were deployed as central midfielders with George Maris sat in front of the duo as the attacking midfielder. Jordan Bowery and Rhys Oates completed the lineup and were the attacking duo who were looking to cause havoc to the Harrogate defence.

As referee Chris Pollard blew his whistle to start the game, every ball into the air would catch the wind as the weather conditions played a massive part in a very scrappy first half.

The first chance of the game fell to Harrogate as Luke Armstrong squared the ball to Calum Kavanagh, but Hewitt was there to block the shot from going goalwards.

Moments later, the Stags created an attack of their own. Brilliant work from Bowery saw him thread the ball into the charging Hewitt. The full-back found Maris inside the area, however, he was unable to keep his shot down.

Both sides offered very little in the attacking sense throughout the rest of the half as chances came at an absolute premium.

Harrogate had a succession of corners which they were unable to create anything from, with Mansfield’s two free-kicks near the end of the half being easily claimed by Mark Oxley.

In the second period, the hosts started very brightly with Brahima Diarra showing some neat footwork to play the ball into Josh Falkingham. Harrogate’s skipper released a powerful effort, however once again, it was blocked from going goalwards.

Kavanagh arguably had the best opportunity to break the deadlock. The 18-year-old was one-on-one with the goalkeeper but his effort was saved fantastically by the out-stretched Bishop.

Hewitt’s long throw-ins were playing all sorts of havoc in the Harrogate box as the Stags had chances to open the scoring, however, they were unable to take them.

In the 69th minute, substitute Lucas Akins’ miscued shot found Bowery as the forward fired goalwards. Unfortunately for amber and blues, the experienced Leon Legge was there to prevent the shot from going in as the defender cleared the ball off the line.

Harrogate had a fantastic chance just before the end of the game through Armstrong. As Bishop dropped the ball, the forward was there to pounce but sent his effort onto the crossbar.

A draw was probably a fair result for both sides in the end. Mansfield Town’s next game is in a week’s time as they face Colchester United at home, with the Sulphurites taking on Bradford City this weekend at the EnviroVent Stadium.

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