Mansfield Town 0 v Port Vale 3 - League 2 Play Off Final

Mansfield Town (0) 0

Port Vale (2) 3

Kian Harratt 20, James Wilson 24, Mal Benning 85

Attendance: 37303

A very poor performance by Mansfield against opponents who were by far the better team on the day. 
Man of the match: Mal Benning, who scored the third goal, is a former Stags player, as are the Port Vale manager Darrel Clarke and their goalkeeper today Aidan Stone, who pushed away a close range header by Jamie Murphy early in the game.

The Stags had a let off, when Benning picked out Kian Harratt with a slide rule pass, who hit the post with a curling shot from outside the area, But less than a minute later, Benning, who had been afforded the freedom of the Wembley pitch and was running amok, completely unchecked, put in a tantalising delivery across the face of the Stags goal that Harratt dived to meet with a thumping header and Vale were ahead.

Just four minutes later, James Gibbons broke forward and crossed to Ben Garrity who headed the ball against the crossbar before it rebounded straight to James Wilson who nodded it past Neil Bishop to double Vale's lead.. 

Oli Hawkins was sent off for Mansfield in the 35th minute for a stupid and completely unnecessary foul on Wilson in the middle of the pitch which earned him a second yellow card.

What a completely moronic thing that was to do... I hope his teammates roughed him up at half-time for having let them, the supporters and the whole club down so badly.

Vale had two further goals disallowed which spared the Stags faithful any further embarrassment.

And credit where it's due here: the Mansfield fans were cranking up the volume a rasing the roof, regardless of how the game had turned out to be a complete horror show for them.
Mansfield rallied a bit towards the end of the game, but a comeback already looked highly unlikely.

With five minutes remaining, David Worrall crossed the ball from out on the right and Mal Benning connected with it to plant the ball past Bishop with a well executed volley.
If it's any consolation at all, the Stags finished the season in seventh place and wouldn't have been promoted to League 1 anyway.
The best team won, fairly and squarely... well played Port Vale.