Victory for Mansfield and Ashfield schoolboys

Mansfield and Ashfield U14’s squeezed past Nottingham City U14’s 4-3 in a dress rehearsal for the County Cup Final at the end of the season.

Mansfield & Ashfield made hard work of a game where they were dominant throughout.

The strong breeze and dry, bumpy pitch made good football difficult and it was the visitors who took an early lead when Tigue Duffy’s corner was swept into

the net.

The home side reponded immediately through Rhys Gray and then went 2-1 ahead when Tom Batterham converted the spot kick after being tripped in the penalty area.

Harrison Day and Rhys Gray began to take full control of the midfield and provided the pass for striker Nathan Savage to slip the ballpast the Nottingham ‘keeper into the net.

Just before the break Oba Julius took advantage of high cross into the Mansfield area that goalkeeper Jack Judson failed to hold to score for Notts.

With the second half only minutes old a good pass from Nathan Savage found Tom Batterham for the Ashfield School striker to side-foot the ball into the Notts net for a 4-2 lead.

The game should have been fairly comfortable from then on for the home team, but it was a case of one pass too many and unnecessary over-elaboration of play that kept the Nottingham boys in the match.

So much so it was no surprise when Elijah Appiah brought the score back to 4-3 to produce a very nervy final few minutes.

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