Brilliant ten-men Mansfield Town stand firm to earn battling draw against Huddersfield Town
Rock-solid Stags showed all their resilience to earn a battling 0-0 draw against Huddersfield Town after playing virtually all of the second half with ten men.
Mansfield had gone toe-to-toe with the promotion-chasers during a tight and cagey opening 45 minutes.
But the game dramatically turned against Stags when Owen Dodgson was shown a straight red for a late lunging tackle less than two minutes after coming on as a half-time sub.
It saw plucky Stags spend the rest of the game on the backfoot as the Terriers pushed hard to turn one point into three.
But the Terriers were unable to find a way of breaching Mansfield's superb defensive unit, which defended valiantly from the front.
It gave Stags a first clean sheet of the season with every player deserving bags of credit for the work-rate and the way they put their bodies on the line.
Stags were rightly given a huge cheer off the pitch with fans celebrating the draw as though it was a win.
Liam Roberts returned to the starting line-up following his foot injury, while David McGoldrick, Elliott Hewitt and Stephen McGlaughlin also came in as part of four changes from the defeat at Bradford.
Michael Smith just failed to get on the end of a good Nathan Moriah-Welsh cross on ten minutes as Stags started solidly.
Deji Oshilaja had to block well when Marcus Harness gave Joe Taylor a sight on goal on 20 minutes.
Bojan Radaluvic hit the side-netting midway through the half after a good run into the box for the visitors.
Stephen McLaughlin skied a well-hit strike over from distance, before Liam Roberts saved
comfortably from Joe Tayor just before the break after Louis Reed was caught in possession.
David McGoldrick had a goal ruled out for offside after a mis-hit George Maris shot fell kindly in stoppage-time.
Owen Dodgson came on at half-time to replace Stephen McLaughlin. But it turned into a nightmare for the wing-back when he was red-carded for a late lunging tackle on Derensili Sanches Fernandes less than two minutes after coming on.
It saw Stags rejig with Lucas Akins and Luke Bolton coming in for Moriah-Welsh and David McGoldrick with Smith leading the line alone.
Ashley Fletcher should have headed Huddersfield in front after finding time and space on 63 minutes.
Lukas Akins saw a shot palmed away during a rare Mansfield attack, before Roberts palmed away a close-range Harness shot.
Ilias Bronkhorst and Cameron Humphreys both went close as Huddersfield continued to push late on.