Don’t panic Mr Mannering!!

IT is very hard not to feel panic when you look at the current BSP table, whatever Billy McEwan says.

But, at the same time, I think we’ve seen enough in recent games to suggest Stags are better than the position suggests (at least four points better that I know of). And we are not even halfway through the season yet.

Some are shouting for McEwan to go already. But what would that solve?

Whoever comes in will also be hamstrung by the transfer window and be forced to work with the current squad which contains a lot of talent but, as a whole, is clearly not up to the job at the moment without some help.

When McEwan came in and took over he had to bring in all the waifs and strays that no one else wanted and try to fashion them into a team.

He has been around long enough to know which of his current staff he can bring on and which of them are going nowhere – and one assumes he already has a wanted list for January longer than my arm.

McEwan believes he is on a three-year rebuilding plan at Field Mil while some fans think the job should be done after four months. Maybe somehere is the middle is a little more realistic.

Let’s be honest, it is going to be the summer before McEwan gets a real chance to put together a squad of players that HE wants and get proper pre-season fitness behind them.

But he will at least have a chance to shuffle his pack a bit in January and bring in some new faces to ease the Stags away from trouble.

Those fans who are barking about why we shouldn’t be at the wrong end of the Conference as we are a ‘League club’ need to get real.

Where we are now is the legacy of the past regime which WAS a League club.

But when the club was sold at the 11^th hour and new owners new manager and new players put in place, it was the end of Mansfield Town Football Club – the League club. Full stop.

The League players left and Conference players were brought in. A tight budget was put in place.

The new owners never promised to inject millions into Mansfield Town. They promised, as fans, to provide the finance to take over and get rid of Keith Haslam as fans were begging.

They wanted to give the club back to the people of Mansfield.

But from that point onwards it was always going to be up to the fans to come back, sponsors to come back, and finance to be self-generating.

It looked to be working for a time but, sadly, a few bad results and some fans are staying away. So much for sticking behind your team through thick and thin!

This season they need you more than ever. It is year zero at Field Mill and the new club will sink or swim.

No one is saying the football has been wonderful through the sticky patch (though it’s been much better since Adnan Ahmed came into the side) or that the results will attract the floating fans.

But let’s judge Billy McEwan’s signings and managerial abilities a bit more come February or March.

If Stags continue to play like they did at Forest Green between now and April they will win many more than they lose.

Sadly, instead of a home match to get a confidence-boosting win behind them, it’s buckets and spades out again and another long, long haul down to the south coast this weekend.

Weymouth, I am told, is a miserable place in winter. But Stags could put a smile on a lot of faces down there if they could produce away win number two.

Hopefully by the time January arrives we will have pushed up the table a bit.

But, if not, then let’s see what the board and Billy can conjure up in the transfer deadline which will be the next major step in rebuilding Mansfield Town Football Club.

Beware the thoughtcrime police!

Despite two cup exits inside a week, I still feel much happier about our prospects than I did two weeks ago.

Losing is a habit we are trying to break, so two more defeats are not helpful. But at York and at Chesterfield I felt there were definite signs of recovery after the recent lean spell.

I see no reason why we can’t get our league season back on track at home to Salisbury City this Saturday and start climbing a ‘snake’ again after sliding so quickly down a ‘ladder’ greased by the points deduction decision.

Let’s remember York needed a stoppage time goal to stop us knocking them out of the Setanta Shield – and we made life very uncomfortable for League Two neighbours Chesterfield and did not buckle under when we might have done.

Anyone who thought we would go there and win needs to examine the facts. It would have been a major FA Cup upset. I was more worried we would come away after suffering a real ‘tonking’ to be honest and was proud how well the lads fought for the badge.

To those who left before the hour mark – why? Did you just go outside looking for a fight – or did you leave because we were 3-0 down and you had given up?

Either way it’s ludicrous to me to pay out all that money to go to a football match and only watch two thirds of it. You must have more money than sense and I suggest you find a different hobby.

But I found it incredible that the Police commandeered the Mansfield Town VIP luxury coach to round up and send back what they felt was a hooligan element all the way to Mansfield in style.

I didn’t see what they were doing and maybe I am doing the Force a disservice here. But if there were no bricks or fists flying, wasn’t it a huge over-reaction to do what they did? It was a huge step to take.

If someone stands near my house looking aggressive and I rang the police I am sure they would say that until the person had actually committed a crime they would not come out.

Why let these ‘fans’ out of the ground if there might be a problem? Many got held in at the end, why not these too?

Those fine folk who had all paid out £40 each for their VIP Stags day out had it ruined by the ‘potential’ actions of others rather than an actual riot when you could see why it would be done.

It’s rather like the stupid suggestion that the vast law-abiding majority should have to pay more for their alcohol as young people ‘may’ buy it and cause trouble.

If someone is a moron and likes to fight after they’ve had a drink then they will do it whatever – and they will find and drink alcohol whatever too.

So the rest of us who work hard all work and want to relax with some beer at the weekend – and would never dream of causing problems – have to suffer due to a few people’s potential actions then do we?

Surely those who do wrong should be punished in the law courts and the rest of us left to get on with our peaceful lives?

One suggestion on the talk of new alcohol legislation is that as the Government have raised their tax on alcohol in pubs to such disgraceful and ridiculous levels, people would rather go to Asda and get some cheap cans to drink before they go out and so the Government is missing out. Who knows?

Whatever, let’s get back to the premise of people being innocent until they actually step out of line. Or we will veer towards the dreaded ‘Thought Crime Police’ scenario of Orwell’s 1984.

But I digress  . . . . Saturday’s visit of Salisbury is shaping up to be a very big game.

We have already beaten them away, need to end a five-game league losing streak and are at home after some decent away showings.

The same applies here over guilt and innocence. Let’s not boo or get on the players’ backs at half-time. Let’s give them the full 90 minutes and stick behind them.

Anything less than 100 per cent commitment and let them know how you feel at the end by all means.

But I reckon with everyone’s noisy backing we can see off Salisbury and get back to winning ways.

It’s a real shame the Altrincham game is off on Tuesday as I really felt we had a chance of six points and a chance to turn the season back around. Typical of our recent luck. But one step at a time and Salisbury are first in our sights.

All we want at Saltergate is 100 per cent effort

Derby day approaches and an army of Stags fans will be heading up to Saltergate for Saturday’s big FA Cup clash.

I hate to be the pessimist but I have a really bad feeling about this one.

I know the FA Cup throws up all sorts of surprises and local derby games are even more of a leveller. But . . .

The Spireites are at home, in hot goalscoring form and probably really looking forward to kicking us when we are down.

I know it hurts but we have to accept that on current status we go into this game hugely as underdogs and all we can hope for is a gutsy showing from the Stags.

Miracles do happen in the cup and even a draw and a replay would be fantastic. But let’s not get too excited if we get well beaten.

Chesterfield have just scored 15 goals in their last four games at a higher level and will be very hard to contain on Saturday.

And don’t forget a mass of away fans booing our side off at Saltergate could shatter fragile confidences once again with two far more important games ahead at Field Mill.

In the first half at Torquay and throughout the 90 minutes at York on Tuesday Stags showed signs of improvement and the two games beyond Chesterfield – home clashes with Salisbury and Altrincham – represent a very real chance of six absolutely crucial points.

They have to remain our real focus whatever happens on Saturday. It will be a great afternoon out with a great atmosphere and, if Stags cannot pull off a shock, then all we want from them is 90 minutes of honest endeavour and effort in a game that few of them maybe understand the real significance of.

If they give that effort then, no matter what the result, let’s clap them off and encourage them for what lies ahead.

Huge congratulations to the 44 hardy souls that made the midweek trip to York City.

It was a third trip to the mouth-wateringly named Kitcat Crescent already this season for a real Mickey Mouse competition (sorry Setatanta) on a miserable Tuesday night and those who went deserve a medal for loyalty beyond the call of duty.

The Shield is such a rubbish competition all the way through that they don’t even bother with a neutral ground for the final. The two finalists just toss a coin for home advantage for the one-off game – amazing!

It was a lovely gesture from the Stags also to try to hand out some complimentary tickets the players had been given to the fans and get as many of the 44 in for free as possible.

And it was almost inevitable it would be extra-time and penalties. When that 94th minute corner came over you just knew where the ball would end up.

Then by the time we had extra-time and penalties and then had the usual lengthy wait for Billy McEwan to do his post match interviews it was very late to start typing and soon we were told they wanted to ground locked up and asked if we could leave.

That is all you need at 11.30pm at night still in York, still nursing the remnants of a hangover from the Torquay weekend, and with a long very foggy journey back ahead of you. Give me a break (give me a Kitkat)!

But we got our work done quickly and let’s look at the bright side of our exit – we would have had a midweek trip to Barrow in the next round following the fourth round draw.

Bring on the Spireites!