New faces, Frantic February and flares

Okay, I will admit I am entering ‘Frantic February’ with a little more hope than I had two or three weeks back.

What we need more than anything this month is an injury-free run. If that happens I feel sure the results will follow.

Having two new faces is a massive boost.

Will Atkinson looked confident on the ball in his cameo appearance at Lincoln and judging by Jefferson Louis’ handshake strength this morning, I am sure he will knock a few defenders about in the Conlon/Stant mould and become a terrace hero if he can find the net as well.

With Simon Brown currently off the boil I really hope Ian Holmes gets his chance on Saturday.

The usual Moaning Minnies took great delight in the fact that Holmes didn’t walk into the club from non-League and immediately set the division alight which was never going to happen.

Billy Dearden was even mocked and ridiculed by some for bringing him here at all.

But Dearden has been around long enough to see qualities in a player that he can nurture and has patiently worked hard with Holmes on the training field for a few months and brought him on.

Now we are reaping the benefits as he has looked every inch the part in recent appearances and is surely due a run in the first team.

Gareth Jelleyman and Matt Hamshaw have also been targets of some supporters’ vitriol this season but are both playing too well right now to merit any flak.

So some of the jibes have been immediately turned instead at Dearden’s two new signings – Will Atkinson (too inexperienced) and Jefferson Louis (scraping the barrel).

Precisely who did you expect Dearden to bring in and how?

His hands are tied financially and we are lucky anyone will come here right now with the club in such a state of flux.

Let’s give the new guys a chance to show what they can do and not crucify them if they don’t have a dream debut.

What the club needs in February is our backing for them on the field, whatever is happening off it.

It was very interesting to hear the players talk this week about how much last weekend’s big home crowd helped them and lifted them.

I know it was the FA Cup and the ‘Prawn Sandwich Brigade’ would be out in force for a one-off.

But, surely among that big influx were some of those who have been staying away due to the Keith Haslam saga and may now be tempted to stay onboard and help cheer their club to safety.

So I will be very interested to see the attendance this Saturday against Brentford.

Let’s hope by Saturday night we are having a beer celebrating getting out of the bottom two.

By the way – which pillock threw the flare? At a time when the club is in constant talks with the Safety Advisory group about increasing the capacity and showing they are making Field Mill a safer place to watch football, what purpose did you think that served?

Either you are a mischievous Chesterfield fan or simply a prat. Save your fireworks for 5th November.

Cameras, cups and croissants

The national media descended on Field Mill this morning to meet the manager and players and prepare their previews of Saturday’s tasty FA Cup tie with Middlesbrough.

Usually there are only three or four of us at the twice weekly press conference. But it was standing room only today as Billy tried to answer the questions above the din of the clicking cameras.

Desperate for a coffee after a late night I had slipped into McDonalds on the way past and was gobsmacked to find the club had laid on tea, coffee and a variety of croissants for the media as I wandered in clutching my polystyrene McDonalds cup.

Wonder if that will become regular? Mmm I think not. But it was very nice all the same.

We had to sneak one to Lee Bell who is a birthday boy on the day of the big match. Wonder what would make his day extra special?

Midway through the interviews the door opened and two large men appeared with the FA Cup itself which was placed right next to my notepad on the table.

I remained as professional and undistracted as I could but the urge to pick it up with both hands, kiss it and do a lap of the room was absolutely huge.

The lads all enjoyed their moment in the spotlight as the papers and TV stations queued to ask them about the tie and the atmosphere was good.

But come Saturday the talking will all be over and it will be all about the football.

Stags’ chances of anything other than a hiding have to be slim. But you never know with this damn competition – just ask Swansea about certainties.

So it would be remiss of me not to have a little flutter on a shock victory – just in case.

After the euphoria of Chester away I don’t feel too down this week over the Darlington result.

Once again it was a close-run thing and again a top side failed to really turn us over.

Only Wycombe have done that from our division this season and that on a night when the weather played such a huge part.

Enjoy the game on Saturday, get down if you can or grab an early place in the pub.

Wear your lucky pants with pride (on the outside if neccessary).

But, above all, try to get out of work on Tuesday in time to get to Sincil Bank for a far more important fixture.

Take one glance at the current league table and you will realise just how much your football team need you behind them at Lincoln.

It could be a fantastic four days – hopefully.

Cheers and beers at Chester

The agony and the ecstasy of following Mansfield Town Football Club couldn’t have been better illustrated by their last two games.

The abject misery of that midweek home drubbing by Wycombe was quickly replaced by a massive high in winning at Chester on Saturday.

From heroes to zeroes to heroes – all inside eight rollercoaster days. So typically Mansfield Town.

Stags were well overdue an away win in the League. The law of averages said one had to come along soon, even if we were absolute rubbish but stole one.

In the end we all but strolled it at Chester with something to spare, despite another unlikely patchwork 11 assembled from our depleted squad.

If we had lost at Chester and all the other sides down there had won you would be looking at an eight point gap to safety – a huge task, even in January.

Instead everything went perfectly to plan as we won and the rest of them lost, cutting the gap to two.

All I needed was six Lottery numbers to come out and free beer all night to complete the perfect Saturday.

Well there was certainly beer – but not free – and no sign of a Lottery win.

The evening celebrations in Chester were great fun and cheers to the Ollerton SSC for their company.

The Lancaster Bomber ale and the Irish band (half of Mark Radcliffe’s backing band) in the Ship Victory were a perfect way to end the night.

I am sure there will be many highs and lows still to come this season but I am not sure we will get two more hugely contrasting results so close together.

Promotion-chasing Darlington will be dangerous this Saturday. But their 3-0 win against Bury on Saturday was their first victory in four so they are by no means in tip-top form.

As I write this there is still no sign of any new players coming in but I think we have to assume Billy Dearden is hanging on for players he feels will do the job rather than going elsewhere to bring in players for the sake of it.

He has done it before and we have to trust he will do it again.
Thanks to everyone who bothered to log onto www.chad.co.uk and listen to our new Stags Talk show.

Hopefully it will be downloadable as a pod cast from this week.

Bring on those Quakers and let’s get at them.

‘Rabbit out the hat time’ for Dearden again!

BILLY Dearden is going to have to produce more rabbits out the hat than Paul Daniels this week.

The loss of Mickey Boulding AND John McAliskey at ‘Stadium Franchise’ on Tuesday was hard to take.

But it leaves the club as weak as I can remember in terms of bodies available for the FA Cup trip to Brighton on Saturday.

It is ironic that possibly the last time the club had so few bodies available Billy Dearden took them to Brighton for the first game of the 1999/2000 season and they were blasted 6-0.

Dearden had already said he needed a new striker last week when both Boulding and McAliskey were fit. So you would imagine he will now need at least two.

The good thing is that he has already shown he can produce strikers when desperately needed as 12 months ago he paired up journeymen Barry Conlon and Martin Gritton and got the best out of them when it was most needed.

We desperately need a left winger too.

MK Dons had two good wide men who simply ran at people and pinged in a succession of crosses into the box.

Stags have right wingers (Hamshaw and Arnold) a striker (brown) and a left back (Jelleyman) who are prepared to fill the position but are not out and out left wingers.

Anything from Brighton will be a bonus (and no I do not agree with those Stags fans who think it best we lose there – or lose any game this season – absolute nonsense).

If we can beat Brighton or even drag them up here for a replay it is potentially more cash in the offering for anyone looking to take over the club.

Some will say it is more money into the coffers of a certain Keith Haslam. But if he is the club owner and the club is currently haemorrhaging money left right and centre then he is unlikely to see FA Cup cash do anything other than try to keep the club afloat.

After the Brighton trip comes potentially the most crucial spell in the club’s history – three home games out of four including one against the only club in the country below us.

Home form has generally been really good until last weekend’s flop against Accrington Stanley.

That game has to be a one off. And Dearden’s new signings have to come in and make an immediate impact in those games if they are not to be cast adrift at the bottom.

As much as I respect the stay-away protesters there has to be an argument that says, even if it is only for these three home games in 12 days, anyone and everyone who cares in any way for Mansfield Town Football Club should get back in the ground and get behind the club through a crucial time.

After that, do what you need to do. Just a thought?