Our youngsters staged a fabulous fight-back this evening, as they came from two goals behind to earn a 3-2 victory in a friendly at Welbeck Welfare.
The hosts established a 2-0 lead thanks to strikes by Kyle Turner and Steve McGurk, before Conor Green reduced arrears prior to half-time.
Joe Harrison (pictured) then netted a quick-fire brace after the re-start, which earned The Stags a hard-fought, but deserved win.
Our youngsters enjoyed plenty of early possession, but went behind against the run of play on the quarter-hour mark.
Turner breached The Stags’ defence to latch on to Josh Marsh’s through ball, and produced a composed finish in a one-on-one with Jahquil Kumari-Hill.
Matters then went from bad to worse as Welbeck doubled their lead midway through the first period, thanks to McGurk’s looping header.
The hosts almost struck again on the half-hour mark, when Scott Cowlishaw’s free-kick was superbly tipped onto the woodwork by a full-stretch Kumari-Hill.
Marsh also hit the post for Welbeck just a few moments later, but on the brink of half-time, The Stags managed to halve the deficit.
On the edge of the area, Ross Lamb expertly spun away from his marker and played a simple ball back to Green, who found the bottom corner with a thunderous low drive.
Green’s strike proved to be the catalyst for a Stags comeback and within five minutes of the re-start, our young guns deservedly drew level.
Mark Robinson flapped at Harrison’s right-wing free-kick into a crowded area, which evaded everyone and somehow drifted into the bottom-right corner.
By this stage, our youngsters had begun to dominate possession, and the turnaround was eventually completed shortly after the hour-mark.
Substitute Rory Thomson picked out Harrison on the edge of the area, who took the ball beyond the advancing Welbeck ‘keeper and duly slotted home.
With no floodlights available, playing conditions were difficult for both teams in the closing exchanges as visibility had been severely reduced.
But The Stags almost struck again in the final five minutes, when Thomson saw an ambitious 20-yard strike turned away by Robinson.
Team: Kumari-Hill, Susso, Simpson (c), Koczalski, Hodgett-Young, Lamb (Trialist), Green, Fitzpatrick (Hutchinson), Harrison, Fletcher (Thomson), Roome (Trialist).