At the risk of this column being renamed Grumpy Stag, Nostalgia Stag, or In My Day Things Were Better Stag, I’m going to have to moan about something else here...
When did the FA Cup become a damp squib? At Mansfield’s recent first round tie against Harrogate, a crowd of only 3,300 people sat to watch what turned out to be quite an exciting cross-division clash, in just two of the open stands at Field Mill. Tickets were £15, which is half their usual price, and I’d expected more people to take up the chance to see Stags progress against a team languishing at the bottom of the division below.
Harrogate, as expected, brought only enough travelling fans to fill one coach and so the North Stand, witness to many roaring FA Cup crowds of the past, was a quiet sea of blue seats, the scattering of Harrogate fans like seals bobbing up here and there.
Back in September, an old university mate had got in touch about coming to see a game in November and bringing a friend of his, as well as another mate from uni. Over the years we have gone to see various games of each other’s clubs. He’s a Spurs season ticket holder, while the other is Torquay. I’ve been to see Spurs vs Inter Milan when Bale tore Maicon a new one and an FA Trophy Final at Wembley with Torquay.
They, in turn, have joined me at several games, including our Play-off defeat to Huddersfield in 2004, Luton away in the Conference years and a now folkloric (for us) ejection from the ground, at Rochdale, for ‘persistent standing’. My Spurs mate later went back to Rochdale for a blood-and-thunder FA Cup tie that saw Dale earn a draw. Not a happy hunting ground for him, but it meant the Lancastrians got a replay at Wembley, Tottenham’s temporary home ground at the time. Don’t get me started on replays being scrapped.
When we initially floated the idea of getting together for a game, the first we’d done in a few years, FA Cup first round weekend seemed like a great opportunity. The narratives, the novelty clubs, the magic of the cup. There was potential for this to enter the annals of our collective football experiences. The draw was eagerly observed and Stags were drawn out first, at home to…. (sigh) Harrogate. It meant there would be very few away fans and therefore barely any atmosphere from their end. No mind, we could still make a great day of it. Then Mansfield announced that only the Ian Greaves Stand would be open to home fans and my expectations of a good occasion plummeted.
I tried to forewarn my friends, and the Liverpool supporting mate they were bringing along for his first trip to Mansfield. My uni friends had both been to Field Mill before and seen enough lower-league football to know the score, but I’d hoped we could show a Premier League fan what our excellent recent crowds were about, in a competition that had often brought out drama and atmosphere over the years. I was over-thinking it. The most important thing really, was getting together, having a catch-up and hopefully enjoying some of the football. Not every game can be Port Vale or Barnsley away. Not for a club like Mansfield anyway. Maybe I’ve been spoilt over the last year or two.
We met in Sandy’s Bar, at the ground, and over beers began reminiscing on FA Cup memories. Gazza’s goal against Arsenal inevitably got a mention and I told them about Mansfield’s heroics in 1969, thrashing West Ham’s World Cup winners, as well as record attendances. “We’ll be lucky to fill one stand today”.
When I was a kid, in the ‘90s, FA Cup draws were live on TV and keenly watched by millions. I remember avidly supporting any underdog against one of the big boys, glued to the telly as though watching my own team. The exception being in 1997 when we walked into a pub, on holiday, to see Chesterfield lose their semi-final against Middlesborough. We were the only ones cheering Boro’s goals that day. I remember FA Cup Final day being an all-day event, waking up early to watch the interviews and previews before the veterans match that preceeded the main event, Abide With Me finally leading in the biggest match-day on the English football calendar.
I remember being flabbergasted that, in 1995, my aunt and uncle had decided to get married on FA Cup Final day! What were they thinking? All day long, as they enjoyed the ceremony and party, I could only think of who was winning, Everton or Man Utd! I’d watched the veterans’ game that morning, while my sister was being made up to be a bridesmaid. Andy King, Stags manager at the time, and an old-Evertonian, had scored the only goal. Everyone watched the veteran’s game back then and the mentions of Mansfield Town on national telly filled me with pride.
The FA Cup is also responsible for one of my earliest football memories. The Spurs vs Forest final in 1991. Clough and Venables hand-in-hand. Gazza’s injury. Nigel Clough in Forest’s Garibaldi Red. I can still see the camera-angle behind Mark Crossley’s goal, as he dived to save a penalty from Gary Linnekar. Those memories, carried in my mind by the significance of the event, are etched. Do kids today wake up with excitement for two teams they don’t support facing-off in the FA Cup? My footy-mad daughter doesn’t, despite my efforts to impart its historic relevance to the sport. I just sound like an old fart, talking about yet another thing from before she was born. “There he goes again. Banging on about that FA Cup thing he likes so much” I imagine her thinking, as she goes off to watch highlights of the World Club Cup on YouTube.
The game ends 3-2 to Stags and we’ve avoided an upset, though Harrogate gave it a bloody good go. Accrington away is the second-round tie. Stags will no doubt sell out the away end for that one, the prize being a coveted third-round place. Maybe that’s when the buzz will kick in. Away from the cup, Stags have been up and down, as I’ve previously said I expect, this season. Magnificent wins against Luton and Plymouth, a draw against Wigan and defeat to Northampton. About right, all-in-all, given the expectations that have been miraculously raised under Nigel Clough, to the point where we are now eighth in League One and six points from the top! The month also saw a key milestone for the gaffer, his fifth anniversary as Stags boss - a truly remarkable achievement that means he is the fourth longest-serving manager in the football league, only behind Pep Guardiola, Mikel Arteta and the Harrogate manager, Simon Weaver.
In a touching and well-produced video, the club paid tribute to the man who has brought us to this point. With trademark Nigel Clough humility, the gaffer put his success down to the people around him - the staff, player and owners. You’ll notice, if you ever listen to Nigel’s interviews, that he uses the pronouns ‘we’ and ‘us’ a lot. While he is certainly of aristocratic football stock, this is not ‘the royal we’ – it’s the collective one.
Good leaders get people to do a job for them, but great ones take those people with them. Clough inspires his players, colleagues and the fans that support this club to buy into his project. One day soon, he’ll probably retire, but until then, here’s to making memories and inspiring the next generation of fans – and hopefully a nice cup run!
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