Harrogate Town 1 Mansfield Town 0: Aaron Martin's sweet strike sinks Stags

Harrogate Town completed their first-ever League Two double as they saw off Mansfield Town on Tuesday evening.
Aaron Martin netted the only goal of the game as Harrogate Town edged out Mansfield Town on Tuesday evening. Pictures: Matt KirkhamAaron Martin netted the only goal of the game as Harrogate Town edged out Mansfield Town on Tuesday evening. Pictures: Matt Kirkham
Aaron Martin netted the only goal of the game as Harrogate Town edged out Mansfield Town on Tuesday evening. Pictures: Matt Kirkham

Simon Weaver's team followed up November's 1-0 away success over the Stags with another victory by the same scoreline at a blustery Wetherby Road.

There wasn't much by way of quality on display, but Aaron Martin did produce one moment of magic in the opening seconds of the second half to decide the contest and seal improving Town's third triumph in four home outings.

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Guilty of gifting away two poor goals during the first half of Saturday's defeat to Scunthorpe, Harrogate very nearly did the same again with just four minutes on the clock.

Simon Power runs at the Mansfield defence.Simon Power runs at the Mansfield defence.
Simon Power runs at the Mansfield defence.

James Belshaw opted to clear an awkward bouncing ball first time and only succeeded in finding Stags skipper Ollie Clarke, who burst through on the home goal but was thwarted by a fine block by as Harrogate's custodian rushed off his line to redeem himself.

With Town lacking any kind of cohesion as an attacking force and unable to string more than a couple of passes together, it took until just past the half-hour-mark for another chance of note to materialise.

And Belshaw was once again involved, diving at full stretch to keep Clarke's goal-bound free-kick out of the back of his net before Farrend Rawson glanced the resulting right-wing corner narrowly wide of the far post.

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It took until the 35th minute for Town to really threaten, Josh March doing superbly to engineer himself a bit of space on the edge of the visitors' box before drawing a decent stop out of Aidan Stone with a low, curling effort.

A game that had been so desperately lacking in quality for 45 minutes was then suddenly lit up by a moment of class barely 10 seconds after the re-start.

Mansfield centre-halves Ryan Sweeney and Rawson both failed to head clear as Connor Hall's punt forwards got caught up in a swirling wind and, when the ball dropped for Martin on the edge of the area, Town's number 10 met it first time to break the deadlock with the sweetest of volleys.

Almost the entirety of the remainder of the match was played in Stags territory, with Harrogate getting into some dangerous areas as they sought to kill the game off with a second goal.

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Josh March saw a strike blocked by a stretching defender before Martin had a strike ruled out for offside, with the introduction of Lloyd Kerry in the centre of the park helping ensure that the hosts remained in the ascendancy.

Mansfield did ask a few questions of the home defence late on, though they never really looked like nicking what would have been an undeserved equaliser as Town climbed two places to 13th in the table.

Harrogate Town: Belshaw; Burrell, Smith, Hall, Francis (Jones 71); Power (Kerry 63), Thomson, Falkingham, McPake; Martin, March. Unused substitutes: Minter, Fallowfield.

Mansfield Town: Stone; Perch, Rawson, Sweeney, McLaughlin (Benning 46); Maris (Sinclair 85), Clarke, Law (Quinn 74) ; Charsley (Gordon 56), Bowery, Reid. Unused substitutes: Stech, O’Driscoll, Sarkic.

Referee: R Joyce (Cleveland).