Mansfield Town - Review of the season 2002/2003
(Links to earlier seasons at the bottom of this page)
2002/2003
was to end in disappointment as the Stags were relegated straight back to the third
division, despite a high scoring season with plenty of excitement along the way.
Before the
start of the season, Chris Greenacre, who was by now out of contract, left
the club to join Stoke City. Centre-half Les Robinson had been released, and manager Stuart Watkiss signed central defender Neil
Moore from conference club Telford United. Shortly after agreeing to sign for the Stags,
Moore turned out for the England semi-professional side in the Unibond Four Nations
tournament (the team mostly made up of players from the Conference). Irish striker Colin
Larkin was signed from Wolves for £125,000 plus extras as a direct replacement for
Greenacre, while striker Iyseden Christie, who had left the club a few years earlier, was
re-signed.
As the
team faced up to their first season back in Division 2, Watkiss was handed a three year
extension to his contract as manager. But there was a major blow with the long-term
absence through injury of both full-backs: Bobby Hassell and Allen Tankard. The Stags
defence looked vulnerable from the very first league game. The Stags won it, but still
conceded three goals in a 4-3 victory over Plymouth. A 3-2 defeat at Wigan followed, and
then the Stags led 3-2 at Wycombe before more disastrous defending in the final minute
meant an equaliser was conceded. Watkiss brought in experienced central defender Mark
Lever to try to shore up the defence. But a disastrous league run continued as bitter
rivals Chesterfield walked away with an easy 2-0 victory at Field Mill, and then after
another defeat at Stockport, Crewe helped themselves to a 5-0 win at Field Mill, in
possibly the worst defensive display ever seen from a Stags team. The run continued as QPR
won 4-0 at Field Mill, and then the Stags lost 6-1 at Oldham. The sequence of league defeats (0-5, 0-4, 1-6)
represented the worst sequence of league thrashings in the club’s history (defined in
terms of goal difference, in 3 successive games).
A 3-2 away win at Luton followed and was
the first away win since February - a run of 11 away league games without a win. Even in
that game, the Stags were 3-0 ahead and nearly threw it away with two late goals conceded.
Two more defeats followed, including a home defeat by Cheltenham which sealed the worse
sequence of home defeats in the club’s history (4 league games plus a league cup
defeat at home to Derby). But then a remarkable 6-1 win over Tranmere (after the Stags had
trailed 0-1 at half-time) signalled hope.
A roller-coaster season continued, as the Stags
consistently played entertaining attacking football but shipped goals hopelessly. A major
positive was the goal-scoring of Iyseden Christie. In one game, Christie scored all 4 in a
4-2 over Colchester, including a hat-trick in a 10-minute spell. A week later the Stags
dominated play at Notts County and led through Liam Lawrence, but after two County goals,
Christie scored a memorable injury time equaliser, despite being clearly offside.
Meanwhile, in the FA Cup, the Stags were drawn away to university side Team Bath and the
match captured huge media attention, and was even shown live on Sky Sports TV. The game
was to highlight the Stags strengths and weaknesses as they strutted into a 4-0 lead with
some superb football from the likes of Christie and Liam Lawrence, but conceded two late
goals and could have conceded more against the hapless students.
The Stags were rooted to the foot of the table,
but seemed to be heading towards a morale boosting victory in late November over
high-flying Bristol City. The Stags led 4-2 after 87 minutes but incredibly still lost the
game 5-4. It was devastating. A week later, the Stags travelled to Port Vale and took the
lead within 25 seconds. Vale had only scored once in five games, but rattled in four goals
to win 4-2. It turned out to be the final straw. Two days later, on 4th December 2002,
Mansfield Town announced that they had parted company with Watkiss and assistant Neil
Richardson. Watkiss’s record as the Stags manager showed that his teams had conceded
an incredible 96 goals in 45 games. Chairman Keith Haslam tried to clear up some confusion
as to whether Watkiss had been sacked saying: “Stuart said that he couldn’t walk
away without any sort of financial compensation, which I could understand. But we were not
in a position to sack him because he still had two-and-a-half years of a contract left. We
agreed on a compromise.”
Former England defender Keith Curle was
immediately announced as the new Stags manager. At 39 years old, Curle was brought in as a
player-manager, and soon appointed the Stags Centre of Excellence director John Gannon as
his assistant. In the first game under Curle, the Stags were beaten 3-0 at Crewe in the FA
Cup, but after that the Stags won three consecutive league games, scoring 4 at home to
both Blackpool and Stockport, and winning at Barnsley, to catapult the team off the bottom
of the table. Curle was to make substantial changes to the defence, shipping out, amongst
others, Moore and Lever, while bringing in left back Adam Eaton from Preston, and Welsh
Under 21 international Rhys Day (who had been brought in on loan just before Watkiss left
the club) from Manchester City.
And so at the start of 2003, hopes were high
that defensive frailties would be rectified and the Stags would escape relegation. But it
proved to be a false dawn as only 5 more games were won in the final 23 games of the
season. Two of the wins were however memorable affairs. Firstly in mid January, Liam
Lawrence scored an injury time winner away to bitter rivals Chesterfield, and then in
early February the Stags raced into a 3-0 lead over their other local rivals Notts County
at Field Mill, before holding out to win 3-2.
A week later came a crucial moment in the
season. In a real 6-pointer at Colchester, with the score at 0-0 after 87 minutes, Adam
Eaton crashed a brilliant long range shot against the post. Within a minute Colchester had
gone to the other end and stolen an undeserved winner. Just 8 days later there was more
heartache, as a terrific display saw Mansfield leading 2-1 at Loftus Road stadium, before
an injury time defensive mistake gifted QPR an equaliser. The following Saturday, when
fans thought it couldn’t get any worse, high flying Oldham scored an 88 minute
penalty at Field Mill to win 1-0. Seldom could there have been 3 more depressing finales
to consecutive matches. In fact during the whole season, the Stags conceded an incredible
14 goals after 87 minutes or later, and scored only 2 in the same period. If games were
cut at 87 minutes, the Stags would have gained 13 points and lost 3 points (i.e. a net
gain of 10 points) which would have been more than enough to avoid relegation.
Successive home wins over Luton and Swindon
raised hopes of a late escape. With 4 home games left (all against teams in relegation
trouble) it was clear that victory in 3 of the home games was what was required. However
it went horribly wrong and home defeats against Peterborough (1-5) and Port Vale (0-1) on
successive Saturdays were definitive. It turned out that had these 2 games been won, the
Stags would have survived.
It got even worse as Barnsley came away from
Field Mill with a 1-0 win. Two days later, the Stags put in a brave performance at
Blackpool and led 3-2 thanks to a late Andy White goal, but the usual failing haunted the
Stags again as another last minute goal denied the team the win. Five days later Mansfield
were relegated in bizarre circumstances as the Stags match at Tranmere was abandoned at
half-time as a man climbed on to the roof of a stand and refused to come down. But results
elsewhere meant the Stags were down. The game was replayed 3 days later and 2 more late
goals condemned Mansfield to another defeat. But there was some cheer in the final game of
the season as the Stags beat bottom club Northampton 2-1 at Field Mill to at least avoid
the wooden spoon.
The Stags suffered 12 home league defeats which
was the worst in their league history, and suffered 26 defeats overall, which was also
a club record. The
Stags won just 3 away games, and two of these were in the first 4 away games under new
manager Keith Curle. The 97 league goals conceded was the worst for
over 40 years. The Stags kept just 5 clean sheets, and
three of these came in the first 6 games under new manager Curle. At the other end, the Stags
scored 66 league goals, which was only six fewer than the previous season when promotion
was achieved, and was only two fewer than champions Wigan. Indeed, of the teams who
finished outside the play-offs, only one club scored more goals. The Stags used an amazing 40
players in league and cup games during the season, which
was easily the most since joining the football league in 1931.
Liam Lawrence swept the board of Player of the
Season awards. Iyseden Christie was the leading scorer with 19 goals, but rather fell away
towards the end of the season.
One happy statistic of
the season was that no home games were postponed due to bad weather during the season.
This was a testament to groundsman Rob Sprigg.
Other
Statistics Snippets of 2002/2003 Season
The
97 league goals conceded was the worst since 1959/60 when 112 goals were conceded during
another relegation season.
The
Stags 5 clean sheets was the fewest since 1981/82 when the club also kept 5 clean sheets,
in finishing 20th in Division 4.
Stags
scored 4 or more goals in 6 league games, which was once more than in each of the previous
two seasons.
Stags
were awarded 11 penalties during the season. Incredibly they missed the first 5 and scored
the next 6. Corden missed 2 (though he scored one from a rebound) and scored 4, Christie
missed 2, Lawrence missed 1 and scored 2.
Iyseden
Christie's hat-trick in a 10-minute spell against Colchester was the quickest by a Stags
player since his own in 4 minutes against Stockport in the League Cup in a 4-2 win in
August 1997.
Leading
scorers were Iyseden Christie (18 league, 1 cup), Wayne Corden (13 league), Liam Lawrence
(10 league, 2 cup), Colin Larkin (7 league), Andy White (6 league).
Christie's
18 league goals earned 10 points. Amazingly White’s 6 goals also earned 10 points.
Corden’s 13 goals also earned 10 points, Lawrence’s 10 goals earned 7 points,
and Larkin’s 7 goals earned 3 points.
Stags
failed to score in 17 out of 46 league games, compared to 11 the previous season and 12
the season before that.
For
much of the season, manager Keith Curle claimed that 50 points would be enough to avoid
relegation. In the end this was exactly right. Stags ended the season with 44 points and
an extra 6 points would have seen them above Chesterfield on goal difference. Most
supporters believed that the home defeats against Peterborough and Port Vale on successive
Saturdays towards the end of the season were definitive. Had these games been won, Stags
would have survived.
Up
to the point where manager Stuart Watkiss was sacked, the first
20 games yielded 15 points. Under new manager Keith Curle, the final 26 games
yielded 29 points. Assuming the same points per game ratio under Keith Curle over an
entire 46 games, Stags would have achieved 51 points: just enough to avoid relegation.
Stags did win the first 3 games under Curle, but from the next 20 games, they only
achieved 16 points: just one more than in the opening 20 games under Watkiss.
Stags
average home league attendance was 4,887. This was a fall of 32 (<1%) from 4,919 in the
promotion season.
The
highest home attendance was 8,134 against Notts
County and the lowest (in the league) was against Colchester: 3,414.
The
average away following at Field Mill was 834.
The
average Stags following at away games was 773, amongst an average attendance at away games
of 6,967 (these figures exclude the abandoned game at Tranmere, and include 100 people let
in free at Cheltenham).
Stags handed league debuts to 9 players (Beardsley, Buxton, Hankey, Holyoak, Hurst,
John-Baptiste, Jones, Mitchell and Jason White), compared to 2 the previous season and 3
the season before that.
No
player played in every league game. The only players to play in more than 40 league games
were Wayne Corden, Liam Lawrence, and Craig Disley. In the previous three seasons, Stags
had always had at least one “ever-present” player.
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Links to earlier seasons:
Stagsnet review of the season: Season 2001/02
Stagsnet review of the season: Season 2000/01