Mansfield Town 1-2 Hartlepool United

Saturday 1st August 2009 - pre-season friendly.

1st August and it was wazzing it down .......when will the weather realise it's supposed to be summer in these Great British Isles?

You can understand why Mansfield have called off their remaining PSF against Ilkeston .. another game on the sodden pitch may have well caused a lot of damage, and we need the pitch to be in good nick for the first "proper" game in the BSP against Crawley next Saturday.

Parked up near Il Rosso, but that is going to have to stop ... I have to tell you, I was really struggling with the walk back to the car -- so were going to have to find somewhere a bit nearer the ground. Kev, bless him, tries to walk slowly, but he's a bit younger than me and a long walk is nothing to him !!!!!

As we were walking back to the car I tried, in between gasping large lungfulls of air, to have a bit of a conversation - the topic "what will David Holdsworth have learned from the game".....it was a short conversation, thankfully!!

The Stags starting eleven was missing several key players, and included youth team player Jon Ventrella at left-back. Saw Jon play at Sutton on Thursday and he did ok.

Starting eleven : Marriott, Gardner, Jones, Graham, Ventrella, Nix, Somner, Istead, Williams, Bradley, Clare.

Before kick off there was a very well observed minutes silence in memory of Sir Bobby Robson.

Hartlepool looked well organised and sprayed the ball about well - they always seemed to have an "out" ball and threatened on several occasions - but it was the Stags who took the lead on 23. A corner by Williams from the left was met by the head of Luke Graham. His effort was blocked at the post, but when the keeper and full-back made a mess of clearing the ball, super sniffer DARYL CLARE was on hand to prod home.

Soon after, former Stags favourite Colin Larkin, under pressure from his own player, headed over from six yards when it looked as though he must score.

The visitors were level on 38 though - Marriott missed a cross and when it dropped to Leon McSweeney he had the simple task of sidefooting home from close range. Marriott's error, but their was no cover - young Versacella was caught out of position, leaving McSweeney unmarked.

H-T 1-1

Hartlepool has a bit of a scare in the 54th minute when their keeper was forced to tip a ferocious Daryl Clare free-kick onto the bar and out for a corner.

Marriott was replaced by Tim Sandercome. Youth team players Ben Turner and Tom Naylor were also given a run out by Holsdworth. Both Turner and Naylor were also in the youth team that played against Sutton on Thursday.

On 69, the visitors broke out of defence, and when the ball was played to James Brown on the right wing, for some reason Sandercombe thought it would be a good idea to go and take him on. As it happened it was a very poor decision. Brown easily rounded the young keeper and fired the ball into the box. Despite a desperate effort by a Stags defender to clear the ball, COLIN LARKIN was on hand to hammer the ball into the roof of the net.

Stags continued to make changes to their line-up, and looked dangerous on several occasions when Gary Silk made progress down the right and whipped in a few crosses. Jake Spieght proved himself a real nuisance to the visitors' defenders, but the Division One outfit managed to hold out until the final whistle to inflict a rare home defeat on the Stags. F-T 1-2

As I said earlier, we were not too sure what David Holdswoth can take from this match, apart from the fact that Marriott is the no.1 and the left-back position is a problem.....hopefully Paul Heckinbottom will be fit for the Crawley game.

Tuesday -- Carlton Tn v Gedling MW