Ray Johnston's Mangotsfield side move up the table to 16th position.
Mangotsfield made the short journey up the M5 to Slimbridge AFC in their first league encounter of 2022. The hosts started the New Year eight points, and three league positions above "The Field" and on one of the best grass pitches in the Southern League the hosts took an early lead when William Hawes converted the hosts 2nd scoring opportunity of the match in the 5th Minute. Mangotsfield , however replied quickly when a free kick was played to Harry Haughton who duly slotted home from about 25 yards out in the 9th minute of play. In an open end to end game it was Mangotsfield who finally scored with Luke Smith scoring his first goal for "The Field" in the 23rd minute. Both goal keepers were kept busy for the rest of the first half, with Marko Radovanovic pulling off a tremendous double save in the 42nd minute, to keep the score line at just 1-2 at half time.
The 2nd half started just as the first half had started, with the hosts scoring after 5 minutes, and bizarrely Mangotsfield scored again after 9 minutes when Dan McBeam scored the directly from the corner spot. McBeam increased the visitors lead just one minute later when he nicked the ball off of a Slimbridge defender and his 18 yard shot beat the advancing keeper.
William Hawes completed his hat trick for Slimbridge in the 73rd minute to reduce the arrears, but thankfully for "The Field" substitute Joe Cattermole's shot slipped through the keepers fingers and the Mangos recorded their first win of 2022.
Final Score Slimbridge 3 Mangotsfield 5
Other results in the league saw Bideford lose 4-0 at Willand and Cinderford lose 2-1 at Evesham so Mangotsfield are now just 5 points behind Slimbridge and 3 points clear of "The Drop Zone." Next up for "The Field" is a home fixture against mid table Highworth on Saturday 8th January