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First County Visit:	Saturday 6th December 1980
Competition:	Football League Division 4 – (Tier 4)
Result:	Mansfield Town 1 – 0 Stockport County
Attendance:	2,808
Away Trip:	21
Away Day:	34
County Line-up	1 David Lawson; 2 John Rutter; 3 Andy Thorpe; 4 Martin Fowler; 5 Tommy Sword; 6 Steve Uzelac; 7 Oshor Williams; (12 Bob Mountford); 8 David Sunley; 9 Les Bradd; 10 Chris Galvin; 11 Tony Coyle
Manager:	Jimmy McGuigan
County Visits:	16

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ENGAGEMENT ENDS FOOTBALL INTEREST

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Divisions 3 and 4, in old money; FA Cup; League Cup; Associate Members Cup and down as far as the National League.  And on the face of it never a particularly happy hunting ground. Thirteen visits in league action, and but a solitary win to show for the 1,300 plus miles of driving.  A loss in the League Cup but a couple of triumphs in the FA and Associate Members competitions.  More of which anon.  But it does come with a particular memory, associated with a Boxing Day encounter back in 1985.

Three days before witnessing a 3-1 defeat at Feethams in March 1983 I had a different kind of outing, and one which was to change my life fundamentally; which led me to getting married; being the proud father of two sons and of course provided me with the perfect antidote to the times of depressions which have encapsulated the County following career!. 

Julie, for some unaccountable reason, accepted my invitation to the pictures, (An Officer and a Gentleman – although neither of those descriptions could ever apply to yours truly).  That evening at the ABC on Deansgate in Manchester led to what the authors of those novels found in airport terminals might call a “burgeoning romance”. It certainly came on apace.  I introduced Julie to the delights of cricket, (still all these years later a reasonably sized mystery to her), as she came to watch me take command of Ashton’s 2^nd team.  In the winter it was of course football, and to her credit, or maybe a sign of madness, she made occasional forays. 

I’d always thought of Boxing Day as the best footballing day of the year, (and frankly still do), and always tried to get to a game or two … or maybe even three.  The proliferation of non-league Clubs in the East Manchester conurbation certainly made that possible.  They staggered their kick off times so a typical post Christmas Day comprised of entertainment at maybe Droylsden at 11.00; Ashton United at 1.00 and then on to County for the 3.00 kick off.  To be fair the latter always meant missing the last quarter of an hour of the middle game, but to no real cost.

Nine months into our relationship I broached the idea of a Boxing Day trip to Ashton Gate.  As usual the fixture compilers had come up with an absolutely ludicrous pairing.  To my surprise yet another invitation was accepted, (although it wouldn’t be a surprise if Julie had no concept that Bristol lay 160 odd miles away).  Then came the coup de grace.  “How about making it a full day out and calling in to watch Worcester on the way down?”  Incredible surprise when there was acquiescence to this as well. 

I remember a particularly feisty affair at St Georges Lane.  Kidderminster provided the opposition, and there appeared no love lost.  With about 15 minutes left, and conscious that a quick getaway for Ashton Gate was in order, I noticed what might euphemistically be described as a “pincer movement” in the crowd.  Sensing that things were about to blow I suggested to Julie that we move fairly quickly. 

Brushing aside the “why” that came in response, she was quickly aware of that uncanny sense that football supporters from that era had of impending trouble, and sure it enough it came. A salvo of ammunition of differing provenance flew around the terrace and some of the keener participants joined in hand to hand combat.  The local constabulary certainly worked for their Bank Holiday overtime that day.  As far as we were concerned common sense had prevailed and minutes later the M5 south beckoned….

On Christmas Eve 1985 I popped the question; Julie said “yes”, and a life changing experience was under way.  Christmas Day was spent sharing the news with family, but just around the corner was trip to Field Mill.  Still in that age of innocence Julie said she’d come along.  By the end of the day our football watching days together had come to an abrupt end.   It was a foggy trip over the Peak District, and exiting the car was like walking into a fridge .. a bitterly cold day, with an 11.00 kick off not having allowed the sun any chance to impart some warmth.

Rather than join the rest of the County throng on the terrace behind the goal I splashed out for a couple of seats in the West Stand.  This I always thought was a pretty impressive structure, unlike the rest of the arena at that point.  Looking not too unlike the stands at Highbury it had apparently it had seen previous service at Hurst Park racecourse in Surrey before that closed down in 1962.  But what did a few bob more paying in matter. 

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Well, if truth’s known, it was one of the poorer investments made in my lifetime.  I’ve no idea what I paid for Julie’s seat but she only got 15 minutes use out of it.  With a plaintive cry of “I’m just too cold” she purloined my car keys and spent the remainder of the game ensconced in the warmth of my car, (a Volvo 360 GLT by this time).  A wise decision on reflection.    

A 4-2 defeat was the outcome, despite the encouragement given by a Mark Leonard brace.  The journey back was a thawing out process, and intimations from the seat next to me that she wouldn’t be rushing back to football, and certainly not on days like that!!  A promise made has been a promise kept.  To this very day we have never, ever again been to a game as a couple.  Her rare outings to football have always tied in with the family, taking Rob and Mark on their introduction to all things County.  Indeed, it is now nigh on 9 years since she has graced the terraces or seats, the last being the Wembley Play-Off victory over Rochdale in 2008.   My thanks to her for her forbearance over the years are more fully articulated in the introduction to this site.

Postscript 2020.

The Play-Off Final wasn’t the last game that Julie came to. In December 2018 we were at Barnet for an FA Cup tie. I’d been to Underhill a number of times, but Barnet had now moved to The Hive. We decided to make a weekend of it. Julie said she would go shopping while the game was on. I informed her that Edgware was simply not the place for casual / recreational shopping and that she would, much as she might not want, be coming to the game, even if she sat in the car all afternoon. She decided to watch, albeit that the damp and cold of the December afternoon, led to long and loud gripes most of the way home!

Which is a lot about me and not very much about Field Mill.  The West Stand on my early visits was impressive.  The rest of the ground considerably less so.  To the left was the covered North End where the locals were found.  To the right, the Quarry Lane End, was an open terrace, home to visitors, and slightly curved which indicted that at some dim and distant point in the past it had been the outer edge of a greyhound track. 

But it was the Bishop Street Stand along the far touchline which, although far from eye catching, held a bit of interest to me.  Hardly capacious, with bench seats, and a pretty gloomy interior it always looked as though it was a lean-to erected in the back garden of the terraced houses which lay behind it.  In use back in the 1980’s but nowadays regarded as more than a risk by the Health and Safety characters it’s now a long time since it has fulfilled its primary purpose. 

My last visit, back in 2013 as the Hatters were sliding inexorably towards the Conference North, and the Stags were heading in the opposite direction back into the League, must have seen this structure virtually condemned.  Errant clearances from heavy footed defenders which landed in the gloom of seats where pigeons and other assorted wildfowl were the only residents required the services of a man in hi-vis jacket and safety helmet in order to retrieve the ball.  No doubt it’s cheaper to leave the thing rotting, but it’s just the same as other stadia where only three sides are in use.  It’s simply not complete.  Of course significant stand replacement has taken place elsewhere at Field Mill.  Tidy, but pretty antiseptic and atmosphere-less stands lie behind the two goals and the Hurst Park edifice is no more, but has at least been replaced by a decent Main Stand.

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I recall going to Field Mill in 1992 in the company of Arthur Brotherton. We had been the beneficiaries of “comps” a few times in previous years courtesy of Mark Payne, (as recounted in the Watling Street piece). Players usually left tickets for family and friends at the ticket office, so if Arthur had made arrangements with Payne we would go there and pick them up. He had long disappeared from County by 1992, so there was no thought of freebie admission.

For some reason we happened to wander by the ticket office, on the way to the turnstiles and saw one of the County fans at the window. He had a reputation for blagging comps which were not intended for him. I suggested to Arthur that a listen in to the conversation might provide some entertainment. It went along the lines of, “Any tickets for me – they’ll have been left by Bill Williams”. The guy looked through his pile of envelopes and answered in the negative. “Oh, sorry about that, they’re probably under Peter Ward’s name”. Once again it was ‘no’. He tried two other names before getting his hands on an envelope clearly meant for someone else.

As he wandered away from the window, Arthur challenged him and said we knew what he’d been doing. Guilty as sin, he opened the envelope, which not only contained match tickets, but also access to the Players Lounge. Whoever had left them must have been expecting half a dozen people. We were offered some of a handful of tickets which would now not end up in the right hands. I had no intention of getting involved with this and we walked away. letting Dicky, as he was colloquially known, that we knew what his game was and would be keeping a beady eye on him in the future.

As it transpires he was banned from the Fingerpost Flyer in later years for annexing some tickets intended for one of his fellow travellers. I’ve never any qualms about accepting comps, (and was grateful for Tommy Sword in previous years, and the Club Chaplain, Billy Montgomery in the seasons as we slipped out of the league, making sure that the regular travellers to far flung places were acknowledged in this way). But the behaviour at Field Mill that day was beyond the pale.

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Field Mill may not have been a happy hunting ground, but did provide an endearing memory in a FA Cup game in late 1996, a couple of months after the Bramall Lane trip. The drive over to Chesterfield was on a fine day, but crossing the M1 and coming up through Glapwell the fog started to descend. By the time it came to turn right at the Sports Centre on the outskirts of Mansfield visibility was a more than optimistic term. No more than 30 yards at best, and the Stags home was enveloped in the stuff. The game couldn’t possibly go ahead, but the gates were open ready for the influx. Given the conditions the cynic inside me suggested that we would end up paying to get in; see, (or more to the point not see), an abandonment with of course no chance of a refund.

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The Quarry Lane End it was for Jeff and myself, with the local police showing an uncommon interest in anybody clad in blue and white looking to gain ingress elsewhere. Space precludes a full description of the next two hours. Dave Espley’s magnificent book on the annus mirabilis that was season 1996/97, (Saturday Night and Thursday Morning – originally published in 1997 with a significant rewrite in 2011), spends a couple of pages reflecting on the conditions; the lack of visibility; goals being scored at the far end, (news of which didn’t reach the County faithful for a minute or so; and some incursions by home support into the away following). It’s well worth a read, as indeed is the whole book – I commend it to you.

So we attended a game, (watched being far too strong a word but the highlights video is here), which led to progression in the FA Cup – one of the few victorious odysseys to North Notts. Driving back it was obvious that the fog was indeed a respecter of county boundaries. Crossing the M1 into Derbyshire it disappeared completely within the space of a couple of hundred yards. Maybe Mansfield is one of those places beloved of meteorologists with its own micro-climate? Or then again, maybe not………….

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January 2017

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VISITS

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Day	Date	Competition	Tier / Round	Opponents	Res	F	A	Crowd	Away Day
Sat	06/12/80	Football League Division 4	Tier 4	Mansfield Town	L	0	1	2,808	34
Sat	20/03/82	Football League Division 4	Tier 4	Mansfield Town	D	2	2	2,161	56
Sat	04/12/82	Football League Division 4	Tier 4	Mansfield Town	L	0	1	1,662	67
Tues	06/09/83	Canon League Division 4	Tier 4	Mansfield Town	W	2	1	2,167	81
Wed	17/04/85	Canon League Division 4	Tier 4	Mansfield Town	L	0	1	1,903	111
Thurs	26/12/85	Canon League Division 4	Tier 4	Mansfield Town	L	2	4	4,206	126
Sat	10/10/92	Barclays League Division 2	Tier 3	Mansfield Town	L	0	2	3,840	244
Sat	07/12/96 (Highlights)	FA Cup	Round 2	Mansfield Town	W	3	0	3,354	339
Tues	12/08/97	Coca-Cola Cup	Round 1 – 1st Leg	Mansfield Town	L	2	4	2,170	361
Thurs	26/12/02	Nationwide Football League – Division 2	Tier 3	Mansfield Town	L	2	4	6,434	475
Tues	14/10/03	LDV Vans Trophy	Northern Round 1	Mansfield Town	W	2	1	3,718	493
Sat	26/11/05	Coca-Cola Football League – League 2	Tier 4	Mansfield Town	L	1	2	2,994	542
Sat	12/08/06	Coca-Cola Football League – League 2	Tier 4	Mansfield Town	D	1	1	3,856	557
Sat	01/09/07 (Highlights)	Coca-Cola Football League – League 2	Tier 4	Mansfield Town	L	2	4	2,747	582
Mon	09/04/12	Blue Square Bet Premier	Tier 5	Mansfield Town	L	1	2	3,883	701
Sat	09/03/13	Blue Square Bet Premier	Tier 5	Mansfield Town	L	1	4	2,628	721

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ON MY JOURNEY WITH COUNTY AROUND 180 GROUNDS

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Previously – BRAMALL LANE Next stop – VICTORIA GROUND (HARTLEPOOL)