Mansfield Town 0-2 Exeter City
LINE-UPS:MANSFIELD TOWN: Jensen, Rose, Pearce, Chapman (capt), Green, N. Thomas (Yussuf 46'), Tafazoli, Lambe (Blair 57'), J. Thomas, McGuire (Clements 46'), Adams.
SUBS: Shearer, Collins, Westcarr, Hakeem.
GOALS:
EXETER CITY: Olejnik, Noble, Ribeiro, Harley, Holmes (Oakley 65'), Davies, Nicholls, Moore-Taylor (capt), Nichols (Wheeler 56'), Grant (Woodman 77'), Brown.
SUBS: Hamon, Morrison, Reid, Tillson.
GOALS: Grant 6', Holmes 41'
Referee: Oliver Langford
Report
TWO LINK-UPS between Lee Holmes and Joel Grant carved the goals that earned Exeter City their second away win in four days.
There were five changes to the Exeter City starting line-up for this one - Tom Nichols, Lee Holmes, Joel Grant, Alex Nicholls and Christian Ribeiro were the players that come back into the side, while Craig Woodman makes his return from injury with a place on the bench. There were just the two changes to the Mansfield eleven, with Nathan Thomas and Jamie McGuire the players coming in.
Two of the returning City stars combined to hand City the lead after just six minutes. Lee Holmes burst along the left on the break before crossing for Joel Grant to convert his third goal for the club. City would threaten another in the moments that followed, with Holmes looking particularly dangerous out wide, while a neat bit of link-up involving Arron Davies and David Noble would ultimately come to nothing.
At the other end, Nathan Thomas would have an effort deflected away off the head of Troy Brown, while Jamie McGuire's header went wide of the target. City were lucky that Krystian Pearce's bullet header went wide with ten minutes of the first half left, but there was nothing lucky about the outstanding build-up to their second goal. Joel Grant made three or four stepovers before feeding Lee Holmes to convert in what was almost the first goal in reverse - Grant the provider for Holmes this time.
HALF-TIME: MANSFIELD TOWN 0-2 EXETER CITY
A very professional performance from the Grecians saw Mansfield use all three substitutions by the hour-mark as they desperately looked for a way back into the game. Some patient build-up resulted in Ryan Harley bringing a save from Brian Jensen,
Mansfield came their closest so far when an effort deflected off an unwitting David Wheeler before going out for a corner, while Wheeler nearly forced his way through the entire Stags defence with ten minutes to go. The hosts couldn't get back into it, though, and by the time the referee had blown the final whistle, most of their supporters had left the One Call Stadium.
FULL-TIME: MANSFIELD TOWN 0-2 EXETER CITY
Attendance: 2,435 (140 away)
Man of the Match: Jordan Moore-Taylor