Mansfield Town 3-0 Grays Athletic
The FA Cup, Second Round
02 December 2005

Grays Athletic went out of The FA Cup despite a valiant performance from the conference side who were forced to play with ten men for the majority of the game.

After an attacking opening from both sides it was Mansfield who took the upper hand after just 13 minutes with a fine finish from Richie Barker.

Mansfield won a corner following a drilled right-footed effort from 25 yards from Giles Coke which was blocked by Stevland Angus. The cross was cleared only for Stephen Dawson to return the ball which was headed home by Barker.

The woes of Grays were compounded just moments after going behind with a sending off for Adam Sandbrook following his challenge on Adam Rundle.

It was clear from the chances created by the Stags that Grays were struggling to cope with the numerical disadvantage, but they managed to hold out for a further half an hour until Barker added his second.

Three minutes before half time Mansfield were awarded a penalty following a foul by Stuart Thurgood on Adam Birchall for which he received a yellow card.

Barker dispatched the penalty at the second attempt following the encroachment of a Mansfield player into the box before he had taken his kick.

Grays went into the break even more unhappy with a foul shortly before half time by Allan Russell on Lee Matthews, Russell received a yellow card for the tackle and Mansfield looked commanding at the interval.

Their dominance continued throughout the second period and only wasteful finishing, and resilient defending from Grays, prevented Mansfield from coming away with a higher scoreline.

Adam Birchall did add a third with less than a quarter of the game left to play when he headed home a corner Adam Rundle. The third goal for the League Two side ended any hopes of a fightback from Grays and sent Mansfield into the Third Round and the first side from this weekend's ties to make it.

Mansfield: K Pressman, J Buxton, A Baptiste, J Hjelde, G Jelleyman, A Rundle, G Coke, S Dawson, A Birchall, R Barker, A Russell
Subs: G Peers, R Day, F McLachlan, J White, A Littlejohn

Grays Athletic: A Bayes, A Sambrook, L Matthews, S Angus, J Nutter (75 G Poole) , M Kightly (45 G Hooper) , S Thurgood, J Martin, D Oli, A McLean, J Slabber
Subs: N Eyre, A Olayinka, N Koo-Boothe,

Referee: T Kettle
Attendance: 2992