Mansfield Town 1-2 Huddersfield Town Player Ratings
Matt Shaw, Podcast Tribal Chief.
Twitter: @TTCMatt
Town tough it out against tough opponents in tough conditions. Tough, tough, tough.
Matt’s ratings
Players are rated on a scale of 1-10 with 6 being used as an average to passable performance. TRIGGER WARNING! half marks will also be used if a player is between scores.
Jacob Chapman -7- Might be a touch disappointed with the first goal, but put any doubts over his culpability of it to one side with two key saves in the second half. Horrendous game for kicking, but he worked out the best way to deal with it as the 2nd half progressed.
Matty Pearson -7.5- A real tonic to have him back as Mel Booth would have said. Pearson won every ground duel, dominated in the air and was the perfect man to welcome back in for the conditions.
Michal Helik -6.5- Won the majority of his battles, organised and was steady away.
Tom Lees -6- A little less comfortable on the left, but used his experience as well as he could. Lost Flint on the Mansfield goal and was fortunate his tired looking header hit the bar at the end. Those incidents aside, he was fine.
Ollie Turton -6.5- Happy to concede ground to his winger but managed to block the vast majority of things that came from that flank. Passing a little awry with 45% accuracy and didn’t get forward as much as he’d like but his solidity provided a good base for the team.
Herbie Kane -6.5- Not the conditions for a creative footballer like Kane who found himself hustled on several occasions by a busy Mansfield midfield, but played when possible and battled away.
David Kasumu -7- Ninety minutes plus of hard work as usual.
Ben Wiles -7- I found Wiles difficult to mark. The midfielder scored a key goal, created 5 chances and his passing was excellent considering the wind. However, at the game I felt frustrated that he was outbattled by the Mansfield midfield as evidenced by him losing 7 of 8 ground duels. However, on reflection, his creativity was on point.
Josh Koroma -8- MAN OF THE MATCH. Much more like it from Koroma! Burned Akins down the left before having to move to striker to cover for injury where his pace and alertness frightened the Mansfield backline every time he was near the ball. Assist, goal and it’s outrageous that the Mansfield keeper wasn’t sent off for his over the ball, studs up lunge on him. More of the same please, Josh and the conch might be reappearing before long!
Callum Marshall -6- Here’s hoping that his first half injury isn’t too serious. Marshall had just about got to grips with the conditions before being forced off.
Danny Ward -7.5- Feed The Ward, let him know it’s Christmas time. Just when you’ve written him off he reels you back in. Ward’s hold up play and throughballs for firstly Marshall and then Koroma were excellent, particularly the assist for Koroma’s goal (chef’s kiss emoji). Wardy will be 34 by the time most people read this and whilst he rolled back the years on Saturday, many will be sceptical of the chances of him performing to this level more often than not. However, if he does then Town will be laughing and so will Killer considering he called it on the pod.
Josh Ruffels -6- Came on at wingback which ended up being more of a left back but was solid enough.
Jonathan Hogg -6.5- Could have got the nod from the start considering the conditions, Hoggy came on to good effect as Mansfield’s midfield had got on top. Added a layer of calmness needed.
Freddie Ladapo -4- It was great to hear the Town fans behind the goal get behind the striker, even after an errant first touch. Worked away, but struggled to get into the game.
Bojan Radulovic -4- Had more touches than Ladapo in less time and did make a few good layoffs but crumbles at any form of physicality. It was a physical day with a very physical Mansfield backline - not a day for Bojan who lost every duel.