Left Stag: September 2025 Stags away, I like it! 

Through the TV, as I watch images of players shaking hands at full time, I can faintly make out a rising and falling chromatic scale - “duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh” coming from the one thousand travelling Stags fans. It gets louder…”STAGS AWAY AHA AHA, I LIKE IT AHA AHA!”. Oh we like it alright. Stags have just beaten Chesterfield away to extend the period of bragging rights to seventeen years and dump our hated rivals out of the League Cup at the first hurdle. There is NO better feeling in football. As it happens, Stags also beat Chesterfield away in 1975, the year that KC and the Sunshine Band released ‘That’s The Way I Like It’.  

Among Stags fans, there is a tradition of ‘knighting’ any player who scores against the Spireites, irrespective of their status among supporters. Sir Calvin Andrew only ever scored once for the club, but his title is deserved. Sir Malvin Benning, a popular and long-standing player in his time, cemented club legend status by putting the ball in when it counted. After this latest win though, alongside scorers Sir Rhys Oates and Sir Will Evans, we have a new type of hero – Sir Liam Roberts, a goalkeeper! Roberts' performance, especially in the first half, was as good as any goalscoring heroics. The keeper, signed in the summer from Millwall, where he was most famous for hospitalising Jean-Phillipe Mateta in the South-London Derby, has been an inspired addition. On his arrival, I messaged a Millwall-supporting friend to ask his opinion. “Could have easily been our number one, gets really pumped up, hence why he kicked Mateta’s head off”. Laaavly! For me, Sir Liam stands out as the best of the new players in the opening month of the season.

The jubilation is fully milked by fans for weeks afterwards, but there are other games to focus on for Nigel Clough and the boys. The derby-day win has erased the two opening defeats in the league and suddenly Mansfield start to play. Four at the back, pace in attack and winning football at last. Exeter away and then Blackpool and Leyton Orient at home, all fall. We are on fire and, as Will Evans’ terrace chant goes, “you can’t start a fire without a spark”. Funny how a cup win can totally transform your league form. Eyes turn to round two. Stags have been given a brilliant tie, away to Premier League Everton, at their brand spanking new ground, the Hill Dickinson Stadium. 6000 away fans will make the journey. I clock out at work on the Wednesday and drive straight to Liverpool. Everton’s new home is right by the Mersey in an underdeveloped former dockyard. Echoes of industry and working-class life are everywhere in this most working-class city, but especially down at the docks. Crossing the old dockyard walls and into the fanzone, I speak to an elderly steward, “Did you work at Goodison Park then?” I ask him. “Oh yes!” he says with beaming eyes. “This place is fantastic” I say, “you must be happy with it”. “It’s not Goodison” he replies. Footy fans the world over are sentimental. I knew I wasn’t the only one! “I hope it becomes as much a home to you as the old place was” I tell him, and go off to my seat. 

The views are tremendous. From our spot up in the top tier, we get a Premier League vantage point for the next ninety minutes, as Mansfield battle, maintain discipline, frustrate Jack Grealish, hold out goalless until half-time, and then inevitably succumb to the gulf in quality, losing 2-0. We haven’t disgraced ourselves by any means, and the 6000 Mansfield fans have brought an atmosphere that no Evertonian will forget in a hurry, or likely see again from the away end this season. We file out onto the road running parallel to the Mersey and pass a pub with crowds gathering outside its windows. We peer in and realise that Grimsby have taken Manchester United to penalties. Stopping to watch them, Everton and Mansfield fans stand together and celebrate loudly when the League Two club do the unthinkable (perhaps thinkable) and knock out the biggest club in England! The next day, after a warming bowl of scouse, I read a Guardian article by Grimsby owner, Jason Stockwood, who I once met in the boardroom at Mansfield. He spoke passionately that day about the need to build on the existing community they had around their small club, much in the way Mansfield have. Both clubs, and numerous others like them are, for many people, the only place to come together. In his article, Mr Stockwood said it was a victory “for everyone who believes football is still about belonging, not balance sheets”. While I’m more than a little jealous of their cup upset, I couldn’t agree more and I’m happy for them.

After the Everton game, things take a slight downturn – another case of the cup impacting momentum perhaps. Mansfield scrape a draw against ten-man Lincoln and lose at winless Wycombe. It will be an up and down season for a club like us. I think we have a squad and manager that are too good to be in a relegation fight – 11th place after seven games supports this, so far. But we probably aren’t going to be troubling the playoffs either. We’ll win a few and lose a few, but so long as we progress, especially in a transition season with eleven new players, I’ll be satisfied. A special mention has to go to the Radfords. Much in the same vein as Jason Stockwood, at Grimsby, they have fostered the community around the club. Attendances are better than I’ve ever seen in thirty-four years, the training ground they built is being improved on all the time, the fan facilities (new shop, giant match-day marquee) are excellent, and the Bishop Street Stand is open and being used. It is only fitting that it has been renamed The Radford Family Stand, to reflect their continued dedication to MTFC. The fans have in turn repaid their love with attendances, despite price increases. Away from home, our numbers are genuinely remarkable. For a club who get 8000 at home to take 6000 to Everton, 840 to Exeter, 830 to Wycombe and 1800 to Lincoln all within a few weeks, is stunning. In a division half-full of ex-Premier League clubs, Mansfield were 4th in the away average attendance table last season. I’ll be one of over 2000 who travel to Port Vale on September 20th and it doesn’t feel like there has ever been a more fun time to go around the country watching this wonderful club. Stags away aha aha, I like it!