We Are The Stags Online

A bad day at the office or a wake up call? Whichever, the Stags did not do themselves justice in this table topping tussle. Strangely, the first half, when only two goals were scored, saw the Stags as a largely ineffective strike force with a defence trying to keep Wood at bay; conversely the Stags let in 4 second half goals but looked 100% better in the attacking department.
Right from the start Wood took the initiative and piled on the pressure with ‘keeper Imber wellying the ball upfield at every occasion and Mark Smith at the back cutting out almost every ball attempting to reach the Forest forwards.
The writing was on the wall when, in the 13^th minute ex Stag Ian Cooper received the ball in front of an almost open Forest goal but he managed to slash the ball well wide of the mark. Then came first goal came after 15 minutes when the ball came to Darrell Cox about ten yards out from goal he flicked a somewhat speculative scoop over his right shoulder; unhappily the Forest ‘keeper Nej Hussein was off his line and the ball went over his head into the net.
There was little joy from the officials either when, a few minutes later, Wes Thomas seemed clear through on goal and was brought back by an extremely late flag. Had Thomas scored , things might have been different but, instead, Wood began to pile on the pressure again and won a free kick from an innocuous looking tackle. The Forest wall seemed badly lined up and the ‘keeper was badly placed behind it as Michael Black shot home from thirty yards without bending the ball around the wall or the wall breaking.
Five minutes before half time, Marc Ward had to go off injured, his replacement was Richard Georgiou. This meant a reshuffle at the back with Batunga going to central defence and Orilonishe dropping to left back. Even though the Stags were to mount a few more attacks, these were easily dealt with by the home side.
The second half was a very different affair though. The Stags entered the field with new purpose and looked on for a goal.
Almost straight away Thomas broke through the home defence and made for the by line. His cross looked to be a winner but it just evaded the two Forest men coming in unguarded at the back post. Then a few moments later a cross came in from the right and Imber dropped the ball (complained to the referee as all cotton wool ‘keepers do) whilst Kanyuka had a stinging shot that went just wide. Imber got it wrong again when he went flapping for a corner kick that made its way to Kanyuka but he was unable to get any power on the header that went just wide.
The reward for all this endeavour came on the hour when Wood undeservedly got the third through Cox after the Stags defence failed to make any kind of attempt to stop players running through the penalty box.
Then things looked brighter when Thomas scored on 68 minutes with a beautiful header after a cross from the left.
This heralded a fight back and the midfield with Kanyuka on the right began to cause the home defence lots of trouble. However, it was the frailty in the Stags defence that allowed Chris Watters to come in from the right without a tackle being attempted, he passed to Leon Archer to score what was a simple tap in.
Cox went on to complete his hattrick and Greg Morgan scored in the 4^th minute of injury time.
Nothing went right for the Stags; even when  Tommy Williams pulled Kanyuka so far back by the shirt he looked like he was a washing line, the referee gave the “Nelson” touch.
The good news: Daniel Charge and Getro Kilapi were on the bench. Charge made his debut late in the second half and looked good.