An added-time goal from Florian Kamberi gave Wednesday a 2-1 victory in our Papa John’s Trophy tie at a wet and windswept Mansfield this evening.
Kamberi slammed the ball high into the net from six yards after a pull back by the dangerous Theo Corbeanu, making it two wins out of two in Group H and ensuring we qualify for the knockout stages of the competition.
Corbeanu did enough on the night to press claims for a starting place at home to Bolton on Saturday and it was likewise for Jaden Brown, who impressed when coming on as a sub at half time.
However, those two aside, the rest of the fringe players in action did little to catch the eye on the night.
It was a largely low-key and uninspiring first half, with both sides struggling to find an attacking rhythm in the high winds and pouring rain. Any threat that did come from Wednesday in the opening half was largely via Corbeanu, playing wide on the right, but his promising approach work was sometimes let down by a disappointing final pass.
There were only two shots on target in the first 45 minutes, both from Wednesday, and the closest we came to opening the scoring was on 39 minutes when Saido Berahino saw his close-range effort blocked.
Mansfield had their best chance of the half in the closing minutes, Tyrese Sinclair shooting wide when he burst clear.
It was Wednesday who broke the deadlock on 63 minutes, Lewis Wing taking advantage of hesitancy in the home defence to head home a Marvin Johnson cross
However, Mansfield were level again five minutes later, the ball falling to ex-Sheff U man Stephen Quinn after sloppy Wednesday defending and he drilled the ball past Wildsmith.
The final minutes saw us dominating for the first time on the evening and we might have gone ahead on two occasions.
First, Corbeanu left Mansfield defenders in his wake as he burst into the box but shot straight at keeper George Shelvey and then Sylla Sow fired across goal and wide from an angle, when he would have been better pulling the ball back for Mide Shidipo or Kamberi, who were both well placed in the box.
However, just when it looked like the tie was going to penalties, Kamberi was on the spot to strike home in front of the 1,700 travelling Wednesday fans.
Wildsmith, Hunt (Brown 61), Gibson (Palmer 46), Dunkley, Johnson, Dele-Bashiru, Wing, Corbeanu, Sow, Berahino (Shodipo 46), Kamberi. Unused subs. Render, Iorfa, Adeniran, Adedoyin.