MANGOTSFIELD United finished the league season in 13th place – but still have at least one cup final to play.
The final three home games of the season were all played by the end of March and turned out a mixed bag, beginning with a 4-2 home defeat by Roman Glass St George, who have become a bit of a bogey side this past couple of years.
After a goalless first half, Josh Jenkins and Shea Bennington-Mannings scored early in the second half to put the visitors 2-0 up, before Jack Nunn (68) and Jaydn Crosbie (75) brought the scores level. Roman Glass clinched the win with late goals from Jonathan Walker (86) and Loui Ward (89).
Five days later came a 1-1 home draw against Highworth Town. An even game saw Daniel Grieve put the Wiltshire side ahead after just nine minutes, but the Mangos kept plugging away and Jaydn Crosbie levelled on 65 minutes to share the points.
The Mangos completed their home programme for the season on March 26 – possibly their earliest home finish of all time – with a deserved 3-1 win against Tytherington Rocks in the GFA Trophy Semi-Final.
Jaydn Crosbie (14) and Henry Ikeije (38) gave the hosts a commanding 2-0 half time lead, and although Toby Waterman gave the Rocks some hope in the 79th minute, Rohan Nelson netted in stoppage time to wrap up a good win for the Mangos. An appearance in a cup final is always a nice way to end a season!
The Mangos were supposed to meet Cinderford Town in the final, but the Foresters were thrown out of the tournament, having fielded an ineligible player in the semi-final. Beaten semi-finalists Cheltenham Saracens will now take their place.
Mangotsfield had no games whatsoever over Easter, and weren’t in action again until April 10, when they drew 1-1 at play-off chasing Slimbridge.
The hosts led at the break through George Neill, but Mangos deservedly levelled on 55 minutes through Stuart Tovey, to secure what turned out to be the final point of the season.
With league Saturday fixtures finished but matches being played on midweek dates, as teams caught up on postponed games as best they could, next up was a 1-0 Monday night defeat at Cinderford Town, whose late winner came from Chris Knowles.
The final league game, at newly-crowned champions Worcester City, turned out to be a lively affair.
At half time, it was 2-2, which the home crowd hadn’t anticipated, with Jaydn Crosbie (10) and Will Ashton (44) scoring for the Mangos.
But the sending off of Stuart Tovey on 41 minutes meant they played with 10 men for the entire second half, and such pressures led to them conceding three second half goals. Worcester’s goals came from Jordan Lymm, Jamie Insall, Elliott Hartley, Elliott Keighley and an own goal.
As the Voice went to print the Mangos were still waiting to find out their opponents in the semi-finals of the Marsh Challenge Cup, while the GFA Final against Cheltenham Saracens was due to be played at Almondsbury on April 25.