Mansfield Town cruise to opening day win over Newport County

An Otis Khan brace and a Tyler Walker debut goal saw Mansfield Town open their League Two campaign with a comfortable 3-0 win over Newport County.
Mansfield Town v Newport County.
Tyler Walker celebrates his goal for Stags.Mansfield Town v Newport County.
Tyler Walker celebrates his goal for Stags.
Mansfield Town v Newport County. Tyler Walker celebrates his goal for Stags.

Walker, who has joined on a season-long loan deal from Nottingham Forest, got Stags on their way with a cool finish on 12 minutes.

It came about after great build-up play between Neal Bishop and Krystian Pearce carved out the opening.

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Otis Khan doubled the stags lead with a perfect header on 56 minutes.

And it was game over when he smashed home long range on 65 minutes to give Stags a well-deserved three points.

They had started the day without wantaway striker Danny Rose, who handed in a transfer request earlier in the week, was left out of the side.

New signings Matt Preston, Tyler Walker and Otis Khan all started the game as Stags handed out five debut.

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There was also a place in the starting side for Krystian Pearce at the heart of the Stags defence after he recovered mentally from the fall-out of the brawl against Sheffield Wednesday.

Both teams took time to get into their stride as they sized each other up during the opening 10 minutes of the contest.

Tyler Walker brought a fine save out of Joe Day on 12 minutes after he reacted well to CJ Hamilton’s blocked attempt.

But there was nothing the keeper could do when Walker cooly fired home just seconds later for a debut goal after great work between Neal Bishop and Krystian Pearce.

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Conrad Logan had to be at his best three minutes later to keep out Padraig Amond.

Craig Davies nearly made it 2-0 when his sweet curling effort cracked the post on 17 minutes.

Fraser Franks headed well wide on 26 minutes, before Keanu Marsh-Brown shot over eight minutes later as Mansfield continued to look comfortable.

The lively Walker wasn’t far away from doubling Stags’ lead on 38 minutes after a surging run from Alex MacDonald created an opening.

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Davies fired over on 42 minute after Khan did well to beat his man.

Khan curled a long range effort wide on 54 minutes during a slow start to the second half.

But he was bang on target just seconds later when Khan headed home from 12 yards after a perfect pass from Walker on 56 minutes.

It was game over when Khan capped a brilliant individual display by cracking home an unstoppable long range effort nine minutes later.

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Hayden White brilliantly cleared off his own line on 78 minutes after Amond prepared to fire into an empty net after going round Logan.

There was brief drama as one of the linesman went down and needed treatment for an injury, before Stags saw the game out.

Star man: Otis Khan (Mansfield Town)

Mansfield Town: Logan, White, Preston, Pearce, Hamilton, MacDonald, Bishop, Khan (Butcher 74), Benning, Walker (Mellis 90 +4), Davies (Graham 90) .

Subs: Mellis, Olejnik, Sweeney, Sterling-James, Gibbens.

Newport County: Day, Hornby-Forbes, Franks, Bennett, Demetriou, Butler, Marsh-Brown, Crofts (Semenyo 58 ), Dolan, Amond, Matt (Sheehan 58).