Plucky Mansfield nearly caused a major Worthington Cup upset against First Division Huddersfield Town at the McAlpine Stadium last night.
Leading 2-1 at half time, the Stags looked in control against a below-par Terriers side. But an inspired substitution by Town boss Peter Jackson gave the home side a 3-2 lead for the second leg through Paul Dalton.
The super-sub terrorised the Mansfield defence and fired home the winning goal from the penalty spot with just 11 minutes remaining.
The Division Three side took the lead after just 62 seconds when a Rob Edwards back pass dropped short of Nico Vaeson, and Iyseden Christie rounded the Belgium keeper to score.
After 17 minutes Grant Johnson levelled, firing home through a crowd of players. But Mansfield went in at half-time ahead after Vaeson failed to hold a corner and Mark Peters headed into an empty net.
On came Dalton and Paul Barnes after 65 minutes, and eight minutes later Town levelled the score. Ben Thornley, who was being watched from the stand by his friend David Beckham, crossed for Wayne Allison to head home. Allison was then pulled down in the box to give Town the winning penalty.
Jackson said: "We gave away two sloppy goals and from then were chasing the game. The turning point was when Dalton came on."
Ian Rush failed in his attempt to top Geoff Hurst's record number of goals in the competition.
The pair remain level on 49 after Wrexham lost 2-0 to Halifax Town, whose goals came from Geoff Horsfield and Dave Hanson.
The Shaymen were reduced to ten men when Stephen Murphy was dismissed for a foul on Gareth Owen.
Former Bury boss Stan Ternent made a happy return to Gigg Lane as his new club Burnley forced a draw. Ternent left First Division Bury in the summer and he watched the Clarets - a division lower than the home side - fall behind on 16 minutes.
Bury striker Rob Matthews collected Andy Preece's flick on and bundled the ball past two Burnley defenders before poking it beyond veteran keeper Tony Parkes.
The Shakers continued to dominate but, on 29 minutes, their defender Steve Redmond made a crucial mistake. He ducked to let Ronnie Jepson's ball go back to keeper Dean Kiely, Burnley striker Andy Cooke nipped in and chipped it into the net for the equaliser.
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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