Real live football for a penny or more – don’t miss out on revolutionary offer!

IF you are reading this I assume you are a regular or semi-regular visitor to Field Mill.

But if you rarely go, haven’t been for ages or have never been before, don’t miss out on this Saturday’s revolutionary offer.

The new owners’ decision to allow fans in for whatever they feel like paying is a brave and visionary one and flies in the face of all that went before with the previous regime.

I can remember people asking the previous owner if he would at least try a ‘Kids for Quid’ night or let folk in free for this and that. But it fell mostly on deaf ears.

But for this weekend only, you can go and see a BSP match for a penny if that’s all you want to pay.
Hopefully many will pay more and possibly some wealthier folk will stick a large amount in the bucket to show their backing for the initiative.

At a time when the financial cesspit of the Premiership continues to price the working man out of live football, this is a chance for Stags to draw in some new supporters who, instead of spending Saturdays watching Premiership action on the TV, get a taste for live football – the real thing.

Wrapped up warm with a Bovril in your hand, it beats almost everything else on a Saturday afternoon and can quickly become a habit.

People from Mansfield should NOT be supporting Premiership brands unless they have a family history eminating from that area.

Otherwise you should back your local side through thick and thin. Maybe starting this Saturday?

This is real football. Honest football. And, at last, it is a warm and welcoming club run by people who actually care.

Let’s be honest, Stags stand to lose out financially on Saturday.

But it is an ‘advertising budget’ that could pay dividends in the long term.

Stags have done well at home for over a year now and Gateshead are very much there for taking on Saturday.

Roared on a by a huge, enthusiastic crowd, Stags will hopefully be lifted to greater heights.

And maybe, just maybe, some of them will catch the bug and come back again and again.

Will the real Luke please stand up?

I must register a complaint with the club about signing another central defender called Luke last week.

I know he is a class act who will probably skipper the side for the rest of the season and prove to be a shrewd and possibly pivotal capture.

But can he not change his christian name by deed poll? Please?

We have just got rid of defender Luke Graham and now our central defensive duo are Luke Foster and Luke Jones with Scott Garner in reserve.

It is already proving too much for me as, in the rush to get the back page finished for this week’s Chad, I captioned two pictures of Luke Foster as Luke Jones.

And interviewing Luke Jones on video today I suggested that a defender called Luke Garner had left for York. Who? There is no such person! Luke Garner would be some sort of hybrid defender, mixing Luke Graham and Scott Garner into one lurching monster! Not a bad proposition though.

Mentally, once you are aware of this problem with someone’s name it only makes it worse rather than better.

It’s been a while since this happened to me as sports editor – the last time was when I used to regularly transpose Stags striker Steve Wilkinson and Kirkby’s top class snooker star Gary Wilkinson.

That complaint aside, what a good player Foster looked last weekend. Luke that is. Though before long I am sure I will be calling him George or Barry – both Fosters who have worn the Stags shirt with pride and aplomb in the past!

It was painful to watch (or ‘Luke’ at) Stags steamroller crisis club Chester 4-0 last weekend and I hope the Seals survive the season. But it was a welcome win, a welcome goal glut and a welcome clean sheet.

And Stags will need a repeat display of all those qualities at Forest Green Rovers this Saturday if they are to get anything from a club whose recent results bely their lowly league standing.

Most importantly, will the Rovers social club at the ground have its legendary pre-match bangers, mash and onion gravy simmering in the big steel pot when we get there?

That and three points will make or break my day. And getting the right Luke in my report!

Wombling free through Kingston and new faces lift Stags

After very little to talk about Stags-wise during the mini ice-age we have just experienced, all of a sudden it was all red hot news off the press at Field Mill this past week.

We have had two decent new signings, an exciting match away to AFC Wimbledon and a new ‘Amigo’ to join the other three as joint owner at the club.

Apart from the nightmare one-way system in Kingston (and the result), the trip to Wimbledon was a good day out last Saturday.

Lovely to see the nice comments from the Dons about how well behaved the Stags fans were in respecting the pre-match anecdotes and silence for the late Alan Batsford as well as the banter in the pub afterwards.

It was a nice set-up with nice people down there and I hope the Wombles Womble all the way back into the League (and stuff MK DOns home and away one day) – as it’s not at Stags’ expense this season!

After the M1, the M25 and the M3 got you close to the ground you were lulled into a false sense of security on arriving in Kingston where the ground is tucked away behind housing.

But suddenly the town centre one way system twists one way and the other with four lanes at times and at one stage I was in the right hand lane and needing to turn left without warning.

However, when in London you do as the London folk do and I indicated and pulled across the four lanes with my eyes almost closed. It worked though!

New boys Jon Shaw and Luke Foster have arrived as players with definite pedigrees this week and should give the side a big boost as we enter a ridiculously busy period of games.

But the biggest signing of the week was the arrival of Steve Hymas as a joint shareholder.

It was great news that the club have yet another local businessman willing to back them to the financial tune of the other three on top of his shirt sponsorship in the summer.

After his well-publicised altercation with the previous owner, there were a few mutterings from a section of fans about Hymas coming on board in the summer as sponsor.

But thankfully now it all seems to be finally behind him and all the comments about him joining the board thisweek have been positive ones as they should now be.

Steve Hymas is one man whose loyalty to Mansfield Town Football Club could never be in question and the more people like him, Andy Perry, Andy Saunders and Steve Middleton are at the helm, the safer the town’s football club’s future will be.

On the field, Kettering sneaked in a game on Wednesday night that made few of the national newspapers but saw them win at Ebbsfleet and edge Stags back out of the play-off zone.
So a win over the sorry remains of Chester City Football Club this Saturday is vital.

No one wants the Seals to go out of existence this week. They have a long, proud history and tradition and let’s hope someone comes to their rescue by the hearing on Wedndesay as every club at this level knows it could be them in another lifetime.

But sentiment won’t come into it for 90 minutes as Stags go for the jugular and hopefully sail to a convincing three points.

Because after this four of the next five games are away from home and, with seven games in February, it could be make or break time for play-off ambitions.

Walking in a Winter wonderland (if that’s okay with Health and Safety)!

I walked out of the Chad on Tuesday afternoon and the snow went completely over my shoes for the first time I can remember since I was a kid.

All of a sudden we have a Winter wonderland and little chance of any action on the pitch, I suspect, for a few weeks.

As much as the kid in me loves snow, after two accidents in the past, I really hate driving in it.

And the descent down Newgate Lane hill and subseqeunt journey out towards the M1 on the A38 were horrendous on Tuesday night and are still slippery and unpleasant today.

But I remember watching many football matches in atrocious snow and ice conditions and playing in many more besides.

As a kid it seemed snowy pitches were simply an interesting part of the annual football landscape.

The snow came down and you simply painted the lines on top of it in a different colour, used a bright orange ball and it was the same conditions for both sides.

These days, with Health and Safety ruling with their suffocating rod of iron, there is little chance of those days ever returning.

If the concern is not for the players then it’s for the supporters and the state of the car park and seats inside.

Yet years ago grounds were mostly terraces and the game still went ahead with a spot of grit underfoot and a Bovril in your hand.

I have vivid memories still of playing on snow and ice on West Park, Long Eaton, and scoring my one and only ‘perfect hat-trick’ in my life.

We fully expected the game to be off but both sides, having got out of bed on a cold morning and turned up, decided they were happy to play.

And, within a short space of time, there we were clomping around noisely on the frozen surface, many still wearing studs.

My low centre of gravity must have helped as it proved to be my day and I was very glad we played.

But it is hard to see any action at Field Mill this Saturday.

Maybe they could invite Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg to have their much-anticipated pre-election debate in the centre circle tomorrow. That would generate enough hot air to get the field looking green again!

At least by the time we play another game we may have everyone fit and well and the hoped-for new defenders in the building ready for the final promotion push. Stay warm!

It’s been a Happy New Year, here’s to the next one!

Football fans will often be fickle and quick to criticise.

But I believe that anyone who has supported Mansfield Town for a long time and understands what has happened off the field, will be delighted to enter 2010 in fourth place in the BSP.

That gives the club a fantastic chance of the end of season play-offs and a real opportunity to get back into the big time.

Faces have changed quicker than a Hollywood Botox clinic as boss David Holdsworth has searched for the right blend at Field Mill.

And, thanks to the new owners, the club has been transformed from ugly sister to Cinderella behind the scenes as it is suddenly a place people want to be involved with again.

After those dark days of the previous regime, the sun is now shining brightly (metaphorically) and the town once again has had a football club to be proud of in 2009. So let’s celebrate that fact.

Team-wise, the Stags have had their problems in recent weeks with injuries, illness and nowhere to train as the snows and the frost bit hard, though probably no worse than anyone else.

But how they needed that win on Monday to steady the ship once more after a few wobbly results.

Kyle Perry’s opener against Cambridge provided the confidence injection the side required and Jake Speight’s winner crowned another good display from the sub’s bench.

Yes, the Stags occasionally went too long. But it wasn’t the best surface to try to play too much football on.

The way the ball hit a divot and jumped over Gary Silk’s foot in a the pre-match kick-in showed how uneven it was.

But the result meant that, despite recent hiccups and the two cup exits, Fortress Field Mill saw only one home defeat in the Blue Square Premier all year, and that down to a controversial red card decision. Once again that is something to be very, very proud of as a Stags fan.

Now Mansfield have two weeks to get everyone fit and ready for the visit of Luton Town on 9th January.

In the intervening time we will hopefully learn about who is coming and who is going with so many players in and out on loan and decisions to be made on them all.

Two brand new faces may also materialise to bolster the squad, possibly in defence, if Holdsworth can keep his books balanced which I am sure will inevitably result in departures too.

And hopefully Daryl Clare will return from his loan spell at Gateshead to become the star of the second half of a promotion season.

After all the razamataz of his arrival and frustration at his success for Gateshead, you still get the feeling that the wily Clare could yet have a massive say in Stags’ season.

York City away on Boxing Day was miserable from start to last.

It was a freezing cold afternoon, Stags crumbled to a 3-0 defeat and the cramped press box conditions were built for working with ye olde pen and paper and not a laptop.

To try to type with your elbows tucked in and your laptop almost on your chest for over five hours forced you into positions that would make a nun blush and at least one colleague ended the afternoon with backache.

Strolling around the city centre later, looking for something to eat, we found ourselves, by accident, on a narrow side street which I quickly realised was the famous Shambles, which took me nostalgically back in my mind to a school trip there all those years ago.

It’s a lovely city but I have had better trips there than Boxing Day!

With no Stags game this weekend I have decided on a busman’s holiday to see the FA Cup clash between Forest and Birmingham City who are both on marvellous runs and should hopefully provide some cracking entertainment.

And the fact that the VAT and Fiddle, the home of Castle Rock Brewery, is only a short walk away from the City Ground provides an added attraction!

Happy New Year to all of you – at least having no game on New Year’s Day allows extra recovery time from the previous night’s festivities. Enjoy!

So here it is, Merry Christmas everyone!

After the disappointment of Wrexham, let’s hope the sun shines on York and Field Mill over Christmas.

It is going to feel like a very strange Christmas if we don’t get to see at least one festive footy match.

And it will be even stranger if we end up seeing a white Christmas for once.

Walking round the Wrexham shops on Saturday afternoon in bright sunshine, you couldn’t help feeling cheated, even though I know there was no chance of the pitch being playable.

At least the pubs were full of festive life on Friday night and Saturday evening gave me a chance to see the fantastic Avatar 3D movie without feeling guilty about not writing cards or wrapping presents.

At least the lay-off last weekend means all those players with knocks and illness have had more time to recover.

I hope you all get what you wish for on Christmas Day (and on Boxing Day at Bootham Crescent – yes, that’s the proper name of York’s ground)!

Have a great one and see you at York!

Angry fans, hurt players and top notch karaoke!

After the chorus of boos that greeted the players as they left the pitch after a fifth home match on the trot without victory last weekend, I am sure David Holdsworth’s men will be relieved to be away for the next two games.

Christmas may be just around the corner, but there was little festive cheer from the home fans after they had endured a match as exciting as Christmas lunch with the in-laws.

It’s a vicious circle that fans could have done more to lift the players onto better things with noisier backing and by doing more on the field the players could have got the fans to provide noisier backing.

It’s the old chicken and egg situation and both and neither are correct.

I just hope relations don’t deteriorate between fans and manager/team when the Stags are sitting pretty fourth in the BSP with a fantastic chance of a play-off spot.

Once again, let’s make no bones about it, this club is currently punching above its weight at this level.

That may hurt some fans who still remember being in the old Division Two under Peter Morris.

Those days are gone and Stags are now a non-League club with non-League players who do not have anywhere near one of the top five budgets in the BSP. That is the reality of it all.

So it must be hurtful to Holdsworth and the ‘Three Amigos’ to see the negative comments posted over the past week, particularly those calling for the manager to be changed.

No side will get through a season without a blip and, altough Stags’ home form has not been up to their usual standards, they have still only lost one BSP game there in 2009 – a record many would gladly swap with them.

The boos and chants of ‘what a load of rubbish’ were inevitable on Saturday as fans were disappointed following a week of Wembley dreams. It was more a cumulative outpouring from five games without a win than just the one match.

But once the emotions have eased off fans must be practical and sensible about it and realise the owners, manager and players are doing the town proud overall and a change of manager right now would be play-off suicide.

With several players in the club waiting to find out their futures in January and other players coming back from loan spells or being signed, I am sure the manager knows firmly in his mind which 11-14 players he wants on his front line for the run-in to the end of the season.

He is still the man for the job. And he and the Amigos will need every ounce of trust and backing this town can provide to get there.

At the same time David Holdsworth must avoid the Billy McEwan mistake of hitting back at fans after a game in which they have shown a reaction at the end.

His comment that it upset loanee Ollie Hotchkiss was not well received and fans who suggested that, if it were true, Hotchkiss needed to toughen up as he may face far worse at Leeds one day, were bang on.

Weather-permitting, Wales beckons this weekend and a tough-looking fixture at Wrexham where Stags last won 23 years ago.

I am looking forward to a trip into town to a thatched real ale pub – I think it may have been called the Horse and Jockey – which had the most profesional karaoke you could imagine.

I know the Welsh are generally noted for their singing ability. But every single man and woman who got up last season sang like an angel. It was definitely like the latter stages of X Factor rather than the early stages.

Then I got up . . . . . .

Hope I am allowed back in this weekend!

Slaughtering Lambs and I am the real Ryan Williams!

Saturday, 8th May is down as the final date for the FA Trophy at Wembley.

That seems a long way away right now in the cold, wet and fog of December.

But this competition is Stags’ biggest chance of a cup success and a return to Wembley.

In the FA Cup it was only ever a matter of getting as far as possible and making money before bowing out to a big club.

In the Trophy Stags ARE Manchester United. Stags ARE Chelsea. Stags ARE the big club that the minnow would like to beat.

If the draw is kind and we don’t end up away at sides like Oxford, Stevenage, Kettering and York then there is a great chance of having a look at England’s new national stadium (I still haven’t been there since it re-opened).

I am sure a lot of people will give Saturday’s game with Tamworth a miss as it is not on their season ticket and it is only round one.

But the club have done their bit by cutting admission prices and the side could do with your support.

Stags will also want to wipe away the frustration of the last four gams at Field Mill which haven’t gone to plan.

Grays’ butterfingered keeper Stuart Robinson looked a bag of nerves in the first half like he might throw one in last Saturday.

But he turned into Superman in the second half and I am convinced he suddenly grew a third arm that stuck up in the air as he dived to his right which kept out Rob Duffy’s penalty kick.

By the way, I would like to wish a Merry Christmas to the dear lady of advancing years who collared me on the stairs at Field Mill and chastised me for the team’s display in a previous game.

It took a few moments of looking at my mystified face before she said the immortal words: “You are Ryan Williams aren’t you?”

Now, despite my hopes of people confusing me for Tom Cruise or Bradd Pitt (although I genuinely have been mistaken for Andy Townsend and Tim Roth before), I never thought it would be Ryan that would be my next double.

Easy mistake to make I guess as, to be fair I am not bad on the wing still, but I am fractionally taller which she didn’t take into account.

I now have my Good Beer Guide out on the Wrexham section and am plotting destinations to celebrate an international victory next weekend.

But first it’s time for the Lambs to be brought to the Slaughter.

Keep 8th May free in your diary!

Stags high jump over Gateshead athletics stadium hurdle

I thoroughly enjoyed my first ever visit to Gateshead’s amazing International Stadium on Tuesday night, despite the howling wind and rain.

Three points and an immediate response to Saturday’s flop at Ebbsfleet were the most important things on the agenda and Stags produced both in the most bizarre of surrounds.

For the Stags fans who did go on Tuesday, standing out in the open at the mercy of the elements in that vast athetics bowl, I salute you.

For those who didn’t make it up there all I can say is that it was like attending a big cup final where no one has been told its happening.

It was like watching a reserve league match at Wembley!

From the press box at the back of the stand you needed binoculars to see the far side of the field which may as well have been over the other side of the adjacent Tyne in Newcastle for what you could see otherwise.

But it was worth the journey and cold to see Mansfield fight back valiantly after going behind against the run of play.

I, and many others, were disappointed by the Stags’ lack of attacking prowess in the final half hour in the Ebbsfleet defeat.

It was disappointing to twice go behind to a struggling club, but you could accept that, and even defeat, if we had stood up tall and fought back but been unable to find a way through.

However, at Ebbsfleet Stags gave the home keeper far too easy a last half hour and cannot complain at the criticism heaped on them (though suggestions from some fans that David Holdsworth should go were frankly laughable and disgraceful).

But all that was forgotten and forgiven four days later.

It was good to see three new goalscorers at Gateshead with so many problems for the club’s top three scorers. Big credit must to go Kyle Perry for having an injection on his thigh (I can’t imagine how much that might hurt) and turning in a brave, powerful display.

Andy Burgess was a class act on the night, Jon Challinor had his best game so far in a Stags shirt, getting into the box more times than any other midfielder we’ve had since Craig Disley, and Louis Briscoe once again looked a potent threat running at defenders.

I do apologise for the athletics puns in my Chad report and, in mitigation, can only tell you I opted not to use even cheesier ones I had thought of!

The night continued to be an enjoyable one after the game too.

I didn’t finish work at the ground until 10.30pm but had a bed and breakfast sorted nearby on the banks of the Tyne and gratefully spotted a pub en route called the Schooner.

I walked in as the only other customer was walking out at 10.40pm and wondered if I would get a beer but the landlord and ladlady were typically friendly locals who were more than happy to serve and chat to me. And they even had a local real ale on handpump. Heaven!

They told me they had served over 100 Stags fans earlier and, despite no chef, had managed to cater for their food and drink needs and enjoyed the company of the visiting fans. Don’t miss popping in there next time we play up there.

I chatted to pubowners Debra and Gordon for ages and they were great company while their local ale helped me get off to sleep after all the excitement of the 90 minutes.

For whom the bell rings! FA Cup misery for Stags

I was so confident we would turn over Forest Green Rovers last night that I had already bookmarked my Good Beer Guide on the Bath section.

Looking down the list, it brought back memories of a great night out around some cracking pubs when we were down there to face Team Bath last time and I had already started to look forward to a pint of Bellringer!

But this wonderful game of ours has a habit of kicking you into the teeth and, boy, is my jaw aching this morning!

Forest Green had played some decent stuff in both games with Stags so far and recent reports on them stated they had not been getting what they deserved and were better than their league position suggested.

Sadly they chose last night to produce the victory their form had threatened against a Mansfield side that seemed frankly complacent in the first 45 minutes.

On a miserable damp, cold night, it seemed both fans and players thought they only needed to turn up to book that date at Bath.

There was a lack of atmosphere on the terraces and a lack of spark on the pitch.

To be fair Stags didn’t start off that badly and had Jake Speight scored that first minute chance it might have been a very different night.

But that early promise soon faded fast as Rovers began to give us a footballing lesson with crisp first touch passing as they walked through our midfield as if it didn’t exist.

They could have been two or three up at half time and had the game secured.

Thankfully Louis Briscoe’s introduction ignited us and he played like we all know he can and how he will have to continue playing to keep Craig Dobson on the sidelines.

I must admit I wasn’t looking forward to extra-time and penalties but it would have been better than the agony of how we went out in stoppage time.

What a scrappy goal to lose by! Whether it was Conal Platt or Paul Heckingbottom who got the final touch is immaterial. If I was Hecks I would be very happy to let Platt claim it, to be honest.

David Holdsworth always looks to take positives out of every game and I think he can now use this one as an example to hold up to his players every time we play a ‘lesser light’ and point out what can happen.

I certainly think it will be enough to gee us up to two excellent displays against Eastbourne and Luton and, with measure of luck every side needs, I think we can win both.

The only other positive from last night is that we won’t have to drive all the way down to Ebbsfleet on a Tuesday night if it had been postponed due to extended FA Cup involvement.

But they don’t sell Bellringer in Ebbsfleet!