Daffodils, leeks and brass bands!

Saturday’s relegation six-pointer at Wrexham is a mouthwatering prospect.

It comes at the end of a week which has seen five more vital home points squandered.

But, with Mansfield’s recent away form and the Dragons’ inability to find the net for three games, it gives the visitors every encouragement they can get something out of this one.

I know Billy Deaden is playing it down as just another game in which three points are at stake. But that if just to ease the pressure on his players.

The truth is a win put Stags seven points clear of the bottom side while a Wrexham win brings them breathing down our necks within a point.

Being St David’s Day, doubtless Stags and their followers will be subjected to an emotional out-pouring of ‘Welshness’ with much singing, brass bands and waving of daffodils.

Why is it every other country celebrates their national day with such passion and pride while most English people would struggle to tell you the date of St George’s Day?

Then you get the politically correct morons who say it should not be celebrated as it may offend minorities. Garbage!

Go to Leicester and see how the communities get together to celebrate Diwili or watch the English gulp down the ‘black stuff’ on St Patrick’s day. A party is a party is a party. But I digress.

I am sure it will be a highly charged atmosphere at the Racecourse Ground and feature the usual England v Wales terrace chanting between the two sets of supporters.

Singing and daffodils are fine. But let’s hope the only ‘leaks’ are in the home defence.

I always look forward to going to Wrexham for a few beers just up the road at The Sun Inn in Llangollen. With a great range of micro-brew ales at the bar and live music, it’s my idea of heaven. Three points would make it even sweeter.

This week could have developed very differently.

We can but dream. But, ‘hands up’ – who honestly believed the club takeover would go ahead this week and that we could get six points from the two big crunch home relegation battles.

In the end there was no change at the top – and no change at the bottom.

The club creeps nearer and nearer to relegation and yet those pushing to buy it do not seem to get any closer and the man selling it seems to continue to be in no hurry at all.

It is agonising. It is like watching a sick relative screaming out for help while the doctors discuss the case with their back to the patient.

What we need this weekend is the tonic of a win at Wrexham.

Half of the remaining 14 games are ‘relegation clashes’ against sides currently in the bottom eight. So Stags’ fate remains very much in their own hands.

But time and games are slipping through their fingers.

Jefferson Louis

Crucial week in a crucial month

I REALLY fancy us for six points in these next two home games.

The fantastic result at Darlington, the determination to end this poor run of six home defeats, the form of Jefferson Louis, the home debut of the impressive Keith Briggs and the chance for Jon D’Laryea to prove himself worth a run in the team in place of the injured Lee Bell will, I reckon, all add up to a return to home success.

Also both visiting sides – Chester and Bury – are struggling sides which makes both matches ‘six-pointers’ too.

It was a shame we didn’t get to play Stockport away on Tuesday at a time when our confidence was high and they had injuries and suspensions to deal with.

But, as I was suffering with man-flu I wasn’t too upset from a personal point of view. Serious stuff is man-flu and you can’t be too careful!

Just as fascinating as the onfield stuff right now, as ever, is the off-field stuff.

Barely has the furore of ‘Cigargate’ died down and we have whisperings coming out of the club that the takeover deal may be done and dusted inside two weeks.

Yes, I know our hopes have been raised several times before and this may all fall flat on its face again. But, from being recently told it was unlikely anything would happen before the end of the season, to this is a big boost.

It sounds like we are well on from the initial discussions and much nearer to dotting ‘I’s’ and crossing ‘t’s’ on a real contract.

We all know how unpredictable Keith Haslam can be but, imagine it, there is a possibility – however small – that we could be heading to Wrexham with another six points and a new owner and bright new future.

If it doesn’t happen then the current regime have to be realistic and start giving Billy Dearden the green light to sort contracts for next season.

League or Conference, Mansfield Town needs football players for next season and the wage bill would not drop that significantly if we had ambitions to get straight back up if we were relegated. Would it?

Bearing in mind what some of the top Conference clubs pay these days we surely can’t be expecting to pay significantly less.

In the worst case scenario of relegation, if we cannot commit longer to the handful of current players we would want to lead us straight back up again now then you have to wonder exactly what the club’s plans or ambitions are.

Some fans are already calling for Louis to be signed up. But Billy is sensible enough to wait a bit longer and see if his initial explosion fades like Barry Conlon and Martin Gritton last season.

Certainly so far Louis has been an absolute colossus.

He has given us everything he promised he would and has been Man of the Match or close to it in every game he has played. Let’s hope he can keep it going.

We said all along that February would be crucial with so many games to play. Well, with three ‘six-pointers’ in eight days, the most crucial spell of that crucial month is upon us.

Get behind them nice and early and help give the lads a leg up against a Chester side without a win in 12 matches.