Bulls come from behind to beat Nailers.

AFC Mansfield scored two late goals to secure the victory against Belper Town, the Nailer’s took the lead halfway through the second-half when Captain Laurie Wilson curled in a delightful free-kick from 25-yards out.

Despite going behind, the home side responded well and took advantage of some hesitant Belper defending to equalise in the 73rd minute, with just ten minutes remaining a sweetly struck volley from the Bull’s number eight gave them the lead and eventually the victory.

Belper had a lot of the ball but struggled to create clear cut chances, whereas Mansfield played the ball from back to front very quickly and looked to have a more direct approach to the game.

The Nailer’s have two more pre-season fixtures to look forward to both of which will be at The Marston’s Stadium, against Mickleover Sports on Tuesday 4th August (19:45 kick-off) and Ilkeston FC on Saturday 8th August (15:00 kick-off).

After the game, Jim Albans reflected on what his team needed to improve upon before the start of the season:

“The first thing we need to improve on is consistency, you cannot stop doing what you are good at. We need to make sure the players are doing it for ninety minutes, today we did it for long periods, we had a lot of the ball, good possession but soon as we went one-nil up we stopped doing what we were doing well”.

Managers Albans and Wayne Hallcro are still learning about their players and what team they will start the season with, for when the Nailer’s host Newcastle Town at The Marston’s Stadium on 15th August, Albans had this to say:

“There is still opportunities for people to be in the starting eleven at the start of the season, Michael Towey was not available today, he is a player that can drop into midfield for us and get goals, he will be one that will be in contention for us next week and we have got plenty of other options”.

Jason Bradley and Lee Cooksey, who are both on trial, featured again today with the former playing the entire game at right back, they are both expected to sign in the week so they will be available for the season’s opener against Newcastle Town.

Belper Town: Rathbone; Bradley, Lister (60’ Cooksey), Watt (60’ Purcicoe), Matthews; Johnson, Wilson, Williams; Garnett (65’ Taylor), Ryan, Stevenson. Other Subs: James, Kabanje, Moran