Salford City end Mansfield Town unbeaten run with staggering victory

Mansfield Town suffered their fourth home defeat of the season as goals from Jake Jervis and Adam Rooney sent Salford City home victoriously from their first-ever visit to the One Call Stadium.

Following a fairly well-contested first half, the visitors took the lead early in the second half with a neat shot from Jervis proving unstoppable despite Conrad Logan’s best efforts.

The hosts’ deficit was soon doubled when Rooney took advantage of Conor Shaughnessy’s mistake to blast home a second on 65 minutes.

Nick Maynard reduced the arrears with thirteen minutes left, but it was too little too late as the visitors held on to claim their first victory away from home since the start of October.

The game kicked off with Mansfield dominating the opening stages as they raided Salford’s defence with a barrage of attacks down the left flank.

Lovely build-up play by Otis Khan allowed Nicky Maynard to find space to shoot, but it was straight at Mark Howard. A lovely cross from Mal Benning found Andy Cook but he headed just wide of the right post.

Another great chance for the Stags was produced when a back-pass from Logan blasted a long ball forward to Cook; however, the home striker could not keep his effort down as he sent a fierce effort over the crossbar.

The visitors thought they had taken the lead on 16 minutes when Ibou Touray’s in-swinging free-kick was bundled home by Cameron Burgess. The flag was raised for offside, though.

Salford continued to threaten with rare counter attacks and came close again when Cameron Burgess’ cross was hastily cleared by Neal Bishop ahead of the onlooking Nathan Pond.

Mansfield remained on top as they dominated the closing stages of the half, but they were still unable to break the deadlock as they entered the interval level.

And the hosts were made to rue their missed chances when Salford took the lead in the second half.

Jervis engineered a defence-splitting run into the box and executed a fine shot beyond Logan from close-range to send the Ammies in-front.

Bishop could have restored parity for the Stags when he found space to shoot but he wasted another chance as his effort went begging over the crossbar.

The Stags threatened to level when Shaughnessy’s cross-field pass picked out Nick Maynard; the striker’s effort whistled agonisingly wide of the post.

And it was not long before the Stags found themselves two goals behind.

Almost immediately after coming close to levelling thanks to his inch-perfect pass, a calamitous error from Shaughnessy gifted Rooney the chance to shoot towards which he duly obliged and snuck the ball past Logan.

The arrears were reduced with thirteen minutes left as Maynard bundled a low shot past Mark Howard; the Stags were back in it and needed to act quickly.

Malvind Benning’s teasing cross was nodded just past the post by Maynard before Krystian Pearce struck narrowly over the bar.

As referee Neil Hair blew for full-time, the Mansfield players were left dumbfounded at how they had allowed Salford City to leave from their first-ever visit to the One Call Stadium with all three points on an evening when the Stags had dominated with a staggering 24 shots.

Line-ups

Mansfield Town XI: Conrad Logan, Mal Benning, Krystian Pearce, Ryan Sweeney, Kellan Gordon, Otis Khan, Neal Bishop, Conor Shaughnessy, Alex MacDonald (Dapo Afolayan), Nicky Maynard, Andy Cook.

Salford City XI: Mark Howard, Scott Wiseman, Ibou Touray, Luke Armstrong (Oscar Threlkeld), Lois Maynard, Adam Rooney (Mani Dieseruvwe), Cameron Burgess, Nathan Pond, Joey Jones, Jake Jervis, Craig Conway (Sam Hughes).