U's:2 Stags:1

Aren't last minute goals great?

There's nothing better than an injury time winner to send you home from a football match in a good mood. Conversely, there's nothing worse than going away and succumbing to a late strike. We've all been there, so it's hard not to feel a little bit sorry for the travelling Mansfield fans who were at last nights match. Only a little bit though.

United put in a display that the comeback kids of 2007/08 would have been proud of to see off the challenge of the swiftly improving Stags. Mansfield have been one of the divisions form sides since David Holdsworth took over just after Christmas, and if they continue to perform as they did last night they will surely be there or there abouts next season. Holdsworth's team play what is probably the ideal style for the Conference; strong, direct, and no-nonsense at the back, but fast and fluid in the final third. The only thing they lacked was a killer touch in front of goal, with neither Mark Stallard nor spot kick king Rob Duffy (pen) doing much in open play. The imminent arrival of everyones favourite camera licker, Daryl Clare, could make the difference in that department though.

The visitors were much the better side in the first, with United flagging, perhaps due to a combination of tiredness, and complacency following Saturday's excellent win. Danny Potter had to turn a free kick from pint size winger Ryan Williams onto the crossbar after it deflected off Hatswell, and from the resulting corner it took a good block from a United defender to thwart Scott Gardner, whose shot from 12 yards appeared to be goalbound.

Too many passes were going astray from a United perspective, and our best moments of the half both came from set pieces, with Rendell turning well but seeing a shot blocked after latching onto a Hatswell free kick, and Willmott heading wide from a Pitt corner.

But just as it looked like United were getting a foothold in the match, Mansfield scored. The referee, who seemed set on compensating for Williams' lack of height by giving him loads of free kicks, awarded another soft one near the left touchline. The winger's cross was a good one, whipped in towards the far post, where Duffy (pen) swooped to head past Potter. He seemed to quite enjoy the goal, and received an inevitable booking for his over-zealous celebration in front of the NRE.

At this time we appeared to be in some trouble, but this team seems to have forgotten how to lose at the moment, and came out for the second half in much more purposeful mood. And as against Burton, our purpose was rewarded with an early goal. Just four minutes of the half had elapsed when a nice move involving Carden and Gleeson saw the ball passed out to Willmott. He cut inside and stood up a tempting cross which a suspiciously offside looking Rendell nodded past Alan Marriott. To misquote Girls Aloud, he's just a goal machine. 1-1.

Now it was all United, with Marriott saving well from Hatswell, and seeing a Rendell volley fly wide. The Stags still looked dangerous on the break, and Nathan Arnold almost scored goal of the season when he ran from the edge of his own box, swapped passes with Jonathan D'Layrea, but shot just wide. But their attacks were becoming fewer and further between, and Reason gave us a taste of what was to come when he volleyed narrowly wide from the edge of the box.

Chris Holroyd, who put in another lively stint up front, was forced to leave the pitch with a bloody nose moments later after taking a blow to the face; hopefully there's no permanent damage done to his boyish good looks. He was replaced by the returning Parky, who came close to a goal when he met Courtney Pitt's cross only to be denied by a lunging block from Paul Mayo.

At this stage the game looked set to end in amber frustration, with Marriott pulling off a great stop to foil Reason's blast, and Rendell just failing to connect properly with a knock down from sub Danny Crow.

But as we entered the third minute of stoppage time, the Ipswich loanee saw another shot deflected behind for a corner. Carden curled the flag kick into the back post, Hats nodded the ball back into the danger zone and Reason raced in to flick the ball past Marriott. Wooooooooo, 2-1.

At almost the exact same moment somewhere in the frozen north, Barrow's Mark Boyd was scoring a wondergoal to sink Histon, a result which made our win even sweeter. With the gap between ourselves and Burton now down to a not-that-big-actually seven points, it will be interesting to see how the Brewers react tonight at Ebbsfleet. They're not really under pressure yet, but if they drop points in their upcoming fixtures against some of the divisions lesser lights, that glimmer of hope which the Brabinator is clinging onto might start to get a bit bigger. Bounce bounce!

Man of the Match: Scott Rendell - After looking off-colour on Saturday, Scotty was back to his best last night, linking play brilliantly and netting the all important equaliser.

Crap celebration of the Match: Although I don't approve of kill-joy ref's carding players for their goal celebrations, Duffy (pen)'s star jumping effort probably deserved a yellow for rubbishness alone.