Bradford City 1 – 3 Mansfield Town – Saturday 26th September 2015

Our 100% league record was broken on Saturday when we suffered a 3-1 defeat to Mansfield Town. The visitors also came into the game unbeaten, so we knew it would be a difficult morning to

Reece Webb-Foster, who had scored 12 goals in his last six games coming into the game, had the first effort of the game on 5 minutes. Ellis Hudson did well to intercept Mansfield on the attack and find Webb-Foster, whose long range effort was deflected behind for our first corner of the game.

Mansfield were a threat going forward and slack defending saw them take the lead in the 17^th minute. A strong tackle from Defender Kesi Omolokun prevented them from making it two in a matter of minutes.

Despite the visitor’s strong start, we did have chances on goal. Kesi Omolokun’s 22^nd minute cross was met by Webb-Foster, but his header was comfortably caught by the goalkeeper and minutes later we found an equaliser through Ellis Hudson. We passed the ball up the pitch to Hudson, who comfortably beat the defenders around him to strike a left-footed shot into the back of the net.

We enjoyed a lot of the possession but only had a few attempts on goal but thanks to Hudson, we went in level at the break.

Mansfield attacked straight from the restart and went 2-1 up in the opening minutes of the second half. They comfortably carried the ball through our defence and volleyed it past Sykes-Kenworthy in goal.

Webb-Foster was brought down outside the box on 50 minutes but the resulting free kick wasn’t powerful enough to trouble the Mansfield goalkeeper.

We had a good link up play and earned our second corner of the game in the 55th minute however, it was comfortably cleared by the Mansfield defence. Kwame Boateng’s also came close when his 65^th minute cross flashed across goal but no one was there to challenge the Mansfield goal.

Moments later, the visitors went 3-1 up. Mansfield’s first shot bounced off the post and although Sykes-Kenworthy made two excellent saves from the rebounds, no one could stop their third attempt that went straight to the top of the goal from 12 yards out.

Substitute Casey Taglione thought he had pulled a goal back minutes later but it was ruled offside. We struggled to find our way back into the game and were lucky to not concede again in closing minutes of the game.

Overall, it was a testing performance for our young side but one that we look to learn from. We now have two free weeks from the league, with our next fixture being away to Scunthorpe on October 17^th.

Highlights below:

 

• George Sykes-Kenworthy (U16)
• Kwame Boateng (first year)
• Sam Wright (U16)
• Curtis Peteres (first year)
• Alex Laird (extended schoolboy)
• Kesi Omolokun (second year)
• Niah Payne (first year)
• Xander McBurnie (second year)
• Reece Webb-Foster (second year)
• Sumaili Cissa (second year)
• Ellis Hudson (first year)

Substitutes

17) Oliver Kirkpatrick (U15)

14)Reece Powell (U16)

15) Casey Taglione (U16)

16) James Sunderland (U16)