1931-2011, My Grandma has seen it all.

It’s been an incredibly emotional week for  me and my family. On Thursday 29th September, My Grandma passed away. Leaving behind her a legacy that will live on for years to come. Including my Mum, Grandma and Grandad have managed to conjure up 5 Children, who in turn have returned 12 Grandchildren to them. Furthermore, the 12 Grandchildren have managed to create a further 13 Great Grandkids (none of which are mine, I must add). So from the pair of them, they’ve their mark on planet earth.

Jim and Mary McMinn, originally from Auchinleck Cumnock, East Ayrshire, they moved from the lowlands of Scotland in 1963 in order for my Grandad to get some much needed work in the coalmines of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire and settled at number 8 Clarence Street, Pleasley. I didn’t really know my Grandad, but i’m assured he was a fine man and one of the most respected in the village. He died in 1990, when I was just 2 years of age, he was only 63 years old. So i’m sad that I never got to know him as well as i’d have liked, but I have heard plenty about him. ‘Nana was the typical fiery Scot, a pure heart of Gold who called a spade a spade, she certainly didn’t beat around the bush. Bringing up 5 kids whilst Grandad was working was a full-time job in its self, which is incredible when you consider she also worked in one of the factories of Mansfield as well.

Her kids eventually all left home and married and as they say, ‘the apple never falls far from the tree’ My Mum relocated from Clarence Street Pleasley, to 421 Chesterfield Road Pleasley, with her newborn son, me. Oh and my Dad was also living with us as well! This ensured that seeing ‘nana would be a daily occurence and we’d always be in regular contact. She’d look after me whilst Mum was at work, i’d be off to play Football on the park that backed onto their house and she’d be watching the TV always able to keep a close eye on me. Me and My Cousin, Danny, he’s 24 and i’m 22, were brought up like brothers and have always remained close, we’ve been best mates and had the same group of mates ever since I can remember, in fact, we’re off on a lads weekend together this coming weekend to ‘Ultimate 80′s’ one of the ‘Big Weekends’ at Butlins in Skegness.

It’s interesting to know that had a series of things not transpired, Mansfield Town could be 1 less fan as I may not have been around, love a bit of history like this!

My Dad’s side of the family also lived on Chesterfield Road Pleasley, Mum and Dad had known each other since childhood but Dad was married at an early age and from that marriage had a Son, Sean, my Brother. A long story short, Dad split from Sean’s Mum and eventually wound up with my Mum and had a further 2 Son’s (Me and Liam). Anyway, the reason i’m telling you this is because on Saturday 1st October 2011, Sean married his lovely Girlfriend Claire at Marylebone Town Hall in London. Fortunately for Sean, it wasn’t his Grandma that had passed away although i’m sure he was equally saddened by the news. It was a great day, the hottest October day since records began as well, so he knows how to pick ‘em! I did have a brief dig at him as well, I wasn’t happy. I was an usher and all the bridesmaids were already married and their was absolutely zero talent at the reception that wasn’t already spoken for! Not happy, the best looking bird at the ball was his wife, lucky sod.

So with my emotions for the week all over the place, I also had to accept the fact that I’d also got to miss Forest Green Rovers away at The New Lawn. I’d again, enlisted the help of a friend who was at the game and I awaited the good news. We’d just sat down for the 3 course meal when the clock struck 3 o’clock, I had my phone in my hand rather than a knife and fork, waiting patiently for news to filter through. 3:25 and i’ve still not heard anything, so I text asking if their was anything good going on in the game ‘oh shit, sorry mate, forgot. We’re 1-0 up after 17 seconds through Ross Dyer’. Jesus Christ, seventeen seconds! I’m struggling to even remember Stags scoring within a minute, never mind within 20 seconds.

In the mean time, i’m sat at the table just to the left of the head table and I get chatting to a few of the folks around the table that I don’t recognise. ‘So, where you from mate?’ I asked a guy that had a similar accent to myself. ‘Oh i’m from Bolsover in Derbyshire, what about you?’ this location gets me thinking immediately, ‘oh are ya? I’m from right next to where you live, i’m from Pleasley, but in the greater half, the Nottinghamshire bit’ theirs the bait, we’ll soon find out…’Oh, so you’re him, you’re the Mansfield fan are ya!’ I pounded my chest with my right fist and proclaimed ‘TIS I, THE MANSFIELD TOWN FAN, WHOM DOES THOU SUPPORT?’ he replied with a rather meak and predictable, ‘Chesterfield, the League 1 team’. I quickly make enquiries as to their score with the help of an assosciate and discover they’re losing and we’re winning, excellent, let the battle commence. He’s around 30, sat their with his female acquaitance when all of a sudden, I hear her pipe up with ‘Chesterfield are better than Mansfield anyway’. So i immediately slap her down ‘Shouldn’t you be in the kitchen wench? Make me a Sandwich’. Of course, this is all of a very lighthearted jokey nature and this account of the situation may not be entirely accurate. At the end of the evening, we’re both outside having consumed too much alcohol, (no not brawling, it was extremely hot so most of the guests were getting some fresh air) and we strike up a bet. He proclaims that Chesterfield will be in the Championship in 2017, I shake his hand give him a further 8 years in which to achieve this. I’m going to make reference to this blog in 14 years when I shall be claiming my 20 notes. I also offer him a pound bet that in the 2012/13 Season MTFC v CFC will be a League 2 fixture, again we shake on it.

Back to Forest Green and i’m informed they’ve equalised and shortly after Anthony Howell has seen red. Now I like Anthony Howell because he’s a grafter, but of late, he’s been making some costly mistakes, I only hope he manages to sort this flaw in his all around play out. I turn my mind back to Wrexham and my expectations for that game and come to the conclusion that if we were now to go on to get a point, then it would be a very hard earned and satisfying result, 4 points from Wrexham and FGR away, you’ve got to take that tally every day!

The 2nd half is extremely quiet and i’m frantically checking my phone to ensure that i’m not missing anything. And around 4.50 the text comes through, ’1-1 FT but we could’ve won it!’ A shame that we didn’t, but with 10 men it was a fantastic result.

In line with the title of this post, i’ve looked into what was happening in 1931 with the Stags and with the help of Stagsnet, and part 5 of the history of Stagsnet i discovered the following..

In the summer Town renewed their campaign for Football League status. For months before the League’s AGM, Town’s officials had been canvassing for support. They also decided to change tack and apply for membership of the Southern Section of Division 3 in an attempt to win the support of the northern clubs. The tremendous amount of work put in by all concerned paid off as when the votes were counted the Stags (25 votes) finished second to Norwich City (38 votes) and replaced Newport County (19 votes) in the Southern section for the 1931/2 season. At last Mansfield Town were in with the ‘big boys’! 

An amazing 23 players were signed for the new season, including 32 year old Harry Johnson Sheffield United’s record scorer. On the League’s opening day over 12,000 spectators entered Field Mill for the historic match with Swindon Town. The Stags ran out 3-2 winners, Joe Readman having the honour of scoring the Stags first League goal. On the whole it was a difficult season with Town finishing one place (4 points) away from applying for re-election. Although Johnson scored 32 goals, the defence conceded over 100 and with only 5 points won (no victories) away from home it was not the start hoped for. There was no success in the FA Cup as the Stags bowed out at the first attempt away at Hull City.

Interesting that when My Gran was born, the Stags were forming the first year in a long football league path that would eventually, in 2007, lead us back to the grave of non-league football. Not that she’d have paid much attention to the scores or even MTFC, she hated Football!

So not so much a blog about Football, more a blog of the past, my week and a satisfactory draw. As mentioned above, i’ll be missing the Grimsby game due to a weekend away with 30 odd other lads, but I’ll be at Southport.

Thanks for reading, up the Stags.

Incredible.

I’ve been at work tonight, meaning that i’ve had to miss Wrexham away. I never really wanted to go anyway, I’ve been more times than I care to remember and my trips to north Wales has always meant settling for a draw or being beaten. Indeed the first time I made the trip to the Racecourse, it was also a Tuesday night, in December and after leading 1-0 through Sir Richie Barker at Half Time, we went on to lose 4-1. That game alone, sums up MTFC versus Wrexham. So after Saturdays sobering 3-0 home defeat against Kidderminster Harriers, I suspect only the hardcore element of away followers made the trip, so I salute each and every one of you.

Back to Saturday, I’m not sure if this will sound completely crazy, but in a way, I’m glad we didn’t win that game. For me, it was a massive wakeup call about our chances this Season. The 8 game unbeaten run was beginning to give our supporters some crazy sense of optimism, this doesn’t happen in Mansfield. In our ‘glory days’ of life in the Football League, we were once voted most pessimistic fans, it’s a very appropriate title, one which we’ve only shed due to our lowly league ranking of 5th tier.

Back when the fixtures came out, Wrexham away was one of the matches i’d marked us down to lose, mainly due to reasons stated above. In fact, i’m now reading that we’d not won at Wrexham for 25 years (thanks to Sweden Stag on Stagsnet). But for some of our older fans, unfortunately that excludes me, Wrexham and the Racecourse would’ve represented something completely different to draws and defeats. Wrexham away is arguably the scene of one of Mansfield Town Football Clubs greatest achievements. Saturday 14th May 1977, Wrexham 0-1 Mansfield Town. This is the day etched in the memories of the older fans, for it was the day that the mighty Stags won the old 3rd division title (League 1) and strode into the heady heights of Division 2 (Championship) Football.  It would lead to famous duals with Glenn Hoddle and Tottenham Hotspur, oh how I long for those days. I read a rather good article about this match not long back, here’s the link if you’d like to read: http://ow.ly/1eICOM.

But tonights result reminded me of how this game can play with your emotions. Pesky work denied me the chance to watch us take on Kidderminster on Saturday, so I enlisted the help of a friend of mine who was at the game to keep me informed with the game and how we were doing. I was always sceptical about us keeping the 8 unbeaten run going, but I was quietly confident we could pull off this result. 3 o’clock comes round and i’m frantically checking my phone, a message comes through….’2-0′ is all it said, ‘hurrah, we’re going up’ but wait, theirs more, ‘..to them, Luke Medley played a killer pass through the middle for their 2nd’. Oh bloody hell fire, we’ve lost the game already and it’s not even ten past three! News then filters through that they’d converted a penalty and my mood was set for the day. I was furious with customers, I was like a stroppy teenager, completely had the lip on and I had to endure another 3 hours of work after the final result. Even had a bit of a set to with my boss, I was right.

So tonight, defeat was already registered in my mind, we were destined to be defeated by the welsh on our european tour. I enlisted the help of another friend to keep me informed, but  also had the help of the Sky Sports app on my phone. No news, just updates of Nott’m Forest’s away day at Burnley. Burnley 3-0 Forest and still no news from the Racecourse. ‘Excellent, I would take a draw at Wrexham right now’ and then incoming, ‘Wrexham 0-1 Mansfield – Wright OG’ A slight sense of joy tingled down my spine, but it was only a narrow margin which would easily be swallowed.

Half time interval reveals that it’s been a very even game and we’ve had to soak up alot of pressure, this sounds like a Paul Cox team, the one factor that i’ve noticed since he’s been at the helm is our ability to soak up this kind of pressure. We’ve not been able to do that in all my time watching the Stags, we’ve always been ‘we’ll score 1 more than you’ kind of attitude, entertaining as it is, it isn’t always effective. I also commented on how I was suprised to see Howell and Todd in the squad. I was certain that Howell would be dropped to the bench in favour of Bolland/Worthington and I didn’t even think that Todd would feature on the bench, but I was reassured that both were having absolutely cracking games.

2nd half begins and it’s not too long before the message arrives ‘Howell mistake_1-1′. Oh shit, Howell is in trouble now, I can see the vultures on Stagsnet descending on our new ‘boo boy’. He’ll take some flak for handing the opposition another goal, but no sooner can I get angry at the sloppy defending, another message….’Penalty!!! They’ve had a man sent off’. Now this is an emotional couple of minutes for me, sat at home by now having finished work, having absolutely no way of settling my nerves, I wait….’Green to take’…..’Get the f#*! in!’. A sense of joy goes through me, we’re 2-1 up at the league leaders and they’re down to 10 men, the impossible could really happen.

For the final 20 minutes, I ended up switching off my phone and putting Smallville on the TV. I just couldn’t bare to go through that period of the match where it was so finely balanced. So I watched Clark Kent return from a parrallel universe in order to save his adopted father, it was rather brilliant how he managed to save the girl from Clark Luther as well, great skills. 21:35, Ashley Young scores for Manchester United to salvage a point against FC Basel, i’m on the BBC Sport website, I can barely bring myself to check the ‘Non-League’ portion of the site. When I finally do, I scroll down to reveal ‘Wrexham 1-2 Mansfield’ noticing that Tom Naylor had seen red too, thank the lord i’d turned away from all contact with the match, I may have had a heartattack. But the one letter of the alphabet that sticks out is L, meaning Latest and not FT. An update arrives and it’s a joyous one, ‘Wrexham 1-3 Mansfield – Paul Connor 90 + 5′. Oh, i’m in a bloody good mood tonight, I’ll be dancing about work tomorrow!

Up the Stags!!

Where better to begin?

I’m not going to prolong the first post, but this is an area i’ve outlined to express my feelings on Mansfield Town Football Club and the madness that is football, mixed in with some drunken football related ramblings. Hopefully I will be able to look back at this in a while and enjoy some of my posts!

You can join in and read/comment/mock/argue with me about my opinions, but it’s something I’ll be doing in my spare time and something to keep a note of what things are going through my mind.

I’ve no idea who i’m currently talking to, apart from myself. In fact, I am actually sat here talking to my self at the present moment, but I will be prodding and nudging a few folks in this direction. Enjoy.