CHURCH SHOCK AFC MANSFIELD

AFC MANSFIELD 1 V PENISTONE CHURCH 2
NCEL 1 @ FOREST TOWN ARENA
7 OCTOBER 2015 7.45PM

VIEW FROM THE TERRACE PLUS NEWLY ADORNED DUG OUTS

Church made it 9 undefeated with this shock second half comeback against league leaders AFC who have been storming the league in recent weeks.
The blog was on the way last Saturday to take in AFC at Hull Utd in a game that was called off late and having caught up with manager Rudy Funk at our standby game at Westella it was good tonight to be able to take a look at the The Bulls.

The trip was an uneventful peak time travel from base and upon arrival at the Forest Town Arena newly logoed and with a smart new fixture board for The Bulls there was time to have little walk along the main street by the village shops.  An early arrival saw us decamp into the massive club and sample the usual non alcoholic lemonade with a bar of spicy coated peanuts.

AFC GROUNDSTAFF PREPARE THE PITCH

The ground here has been described before in lasts seasons blogs and after some heavy rain in the last few days once again the pitch had drained well to look in excellent condition.  As usual and more relevant than ever tonight, as you will find out later, I'm not a fan of tracks around football pitches.  In this case of course it is a cycle track and by the time dug outs are taken into account on the stand side there are few clear views.  The better is from the lofted terrace position by the clubs conservatory area.
As ever the club officials offered a warm welcome and it was good to catch up with Chairman Andrew Saunders, secretary Peter Craggs and manager Rudy Funk.  While moving round to the 'office area' which is situated behind the right hand goals there is always a method as we honed in on Bullys snack bar which as ever offered a cracking chip cob and warm drink all for a reasonable price.  We purchased a couple of goalden goal tickets, of which more later!

HOPPERS DELIGHT A GOOD SNACK BAR

Referee's assessor tonight was former Alfreton Town player Matt Walsh a player the blog saw many times and then on quite a few occasions as a referee there was time to guide him to the correct areas as this was his first visit. 
As we approached kick off the usual shuffling around was to gain the best position and we settled for a position behind the corner flag to the right hand side, closest to the pitch but quite away from the far goals which was to prove embarrassing.
The first half had seen Ollie Fearon, Andy Ring and Andy Barlow all look threatening for the visitors while Mansfield had also been prominent and with both teams missing chances it looked guaranteed that we would receive goals soon.  The blog thought this had happened on 32 minutes and this was to remain the case until checking the website on the way back half an hour after the game and of course resulted in an embarrassing error in the score line initially given as a 2-2 draw!  A bouncing ball on the edge of the 6 yard box was met by Dean Rick for AFC and visiting keeper Adam Rhodes the former got their first and poked the ball over the line.  Mansfield players wheeled away to celebrate, the referee signalled to the halfway line and the public address system announced the goalden goal winner was 32 minutes.  Fellow hopper Mick thought he had it he scrambled away to find the ticket I checked for mine and by the time we both realised neither of us had the correct ticket the game was underway again.  It would later transpire that this goal did not count but in future I will be taking pictures of every re start!! 
The bulls did open the scoring, or get the second depending on your view of things[!], on 38 minutes when Craig Mitchell rose to head home at the back post.

A LOOK AT THE TERRACING AT THE ARENA

Penistone were unlucky to be behind but they made amends in the second half when after 63 minutes Ollie Fearon guided the ball home after his first effort had bounced back off the post.  The game continued to flow from end to end but it was Penistone who took the lead after 74 minutes when Andy Barlow turned on the ball to fire home from 20 yards.
In the latter stages their was still time for the resolute Brett Lovell to see his header cleared off the line and as the home side looked for the equaliser keeper Jason White came up for a corner and fired the ball over from just inside the box.
An open game with lots of chances missed by both sides a draw would probably have been a fair result however much credit must go to Church who came and played an attacking game when many would have come to defend.