Mansfield Town - Review of the season 1998/99

By Martin Shaw

A season of two halves seems an appropriate way to describe 1998/99 for Mansfield Town. The final position of 8^th was just one place behind the final play-off place, and represented a huge disappointment. Because for most of the season the team were positioned in the top 7. In fact after a Friday night victory over Shrewsbury in December, the Stags went top of the Division, albeit just for one day.

The table below shows the contrast of the first half of the season compared to the second half. Over the first 23 games, the Stags were equal third along with Cambridge on 40 points, with only Cardiff and Brentford above them. But over the last 23 games, the table shows that only 6 teams gained fewer than the 27 points that the Stags got. In fact, 27 points over the second half of the season, was the same number of points gained by relegated Scarborough.

(Table sorted by points gained in last 23 games).

Mansfield’s season was based very much around a home record that was the second best in the Division. Stags achieved 47 points at home (15 wins, 2 draws), bettered only by Brentford (53 points: 16 wins, 5 draws).

By contrast, Mansfield won only 4 games away from Field Mill. 3 of the away wins came in a spell of 4 away games during October and November. Amazingly, and ultimately fatally, Stags did not win a single away match after November 10^th. Only Carlisle, Torquay and Shrewsbury won fewer games away from home.

There were many highlights of the season. Most supporters would agree that the performance of the season came in a 3-1 win over eventual champions Brentford in fine style at Field Mill in January. Especially as on the opening day of the season, Stags had been well and truly pasted 3-0 at Brentford.

Another wonderful highlight was a 5-0 win over Barnet on a Friday night in November, featuring a Lee Peacock hat-trick, with national exposure gained as the first match ever played with the new yellow fluorescent ball, and with second half commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live. Of course there was also the 1-0 home win over Shrewsbury in December on a Friday night which saw Stags go top of the table for the only time in the season. This followed 3 days after a 2-1 win at Maine Road against Manchester City in the Auto Windscreen Shield. During the second half of the season, there was Lee Peacock’s late winner against Scunthorpe, and wonderful goals by popular Frenchman Cyrille L’Helgoualch and Darrell Clarke to beat Rochdale 3-1.

National exposure was also poured on Stags player/assistant manager Tony Ford who at the age of 39, broke the all-time record of league appearances for an outfield player when he played his 825^th game, away to Plymouth on January 16^th. It was an occasion I thoroughly enjoyed, but a 3-0 defeat left a sour taste.

One week later, Stags played Rotherham at Field Mill in a match live on Sky Sports. It was a game Stags were desperate to win. But fate dealt Stags a bitter blow as 2 early goals were disallowed. Cameras showed that the second of these was wrongly ruled out, a point noted by the Sky Sports experts. Rotherham then went on to score 3 second half goals and leave Stags fans sick with disappointment.

Despite a run of just 4 wins between January 9^th and April 24^th the Stags always remained in the play-off places or just outside. Victory over Hartlepool on April 24^th left Stags in a play-off place with just 3 games to play. Three days Stags later were at home to Exeter, who had won even fewer away games than Stags, in a game that was to prove the nightmare of the season. Mansfield never got into gear but after 47 minutes Exeter scored and as the ball was put in the net, keeper Ian Bowling suffered a broken arm that will keep him out of action for 8 months. Stags were left to play 43 minutes with club captain John Schofield in goal and finished losing 1-0. Defeat the following Saturday at Shrewsbury, coupled with a win by Swansea the following Thursday finally extinguished hopes of making the play-offs, and Stags went into the final game at home to Cardiff unable to get into the top 7. A convincing 3-0 win over already promoted Cardiff did at least give the fans a real high on which to end the season, especially because of the quality of 2 of the goals, including Darrell Clarke’s 33 yard screamer, which was my choice as Stags Goal of the Season (see below).

Other than the Exeter and Rotherham home games, other low points of the season included a crucial 1-0 home defeat by Halifax in April, failure to beat a 10-man Southend at Field Mill 3 days earlier. Other especially disappointing results were a 2-1 home defeat by non-league Southport, but Stags performance was not too bad and they were incredibly unlucky to lose, a 5-1 defeat at Darlington where 5 goals were conceded after leading 1-0 and then having Iyesden Christie sent off, a 7-2 defeat at Cambridge where the performance again was not too bad and actually received much praise from Cambridge supporters and manager, and a 2-2 draw at Halifax where Stags conceded a sickening equaliser in injury time thanks to a terrible penalty decision.

In fact, many supporters considered that the Cambridge away game proved to be a turning point of the season. After that heavy defeat, Steve Parkin axed his entire 3 man central defence. Whilst the new defence indeed looked more solid, the change seemed to alter the balance of the team and a longer ball game was employed. This didn’t suit Stags style of play and in the remaining 10 games of the season, Stags amazingly failed to score in 7 of them. Though equally remarkably Stags only conceded 4 goals in the final 10 games, but each of these goals resulted in a 1-0 defeat, and it was the failure to win enough games in this period that cost Stags dear.

Overall I think most supporters were pleased with standard of football played by Steve Parkin’s men, especially given problems off the field. The average attendance was just under 3,000 and was up nearly 10% on the previous season, reflecting the style of football and good home record. Most notable of the problems Parkin faced was a transfer embargo that was in place for the majority of the season and prevented Parkin strengthening his squad even with loan players, when he needed to.

Keeper Ian Bowling received 2 awards of the player of the season, with Lee Peacock receiving one other award of the player of the season. Lee Peacock finished the season with 19 goals, a tremendous tally though this did include 5 penalties.

At the end of the season, Steve Parkin released 7 players including club captain John Schofield, Steve Harper (who played more games during the season than anyone else, missing just one game), and Mark Peters, who many including me regarded as one of Stags best players.

Stags fans will hope and pray that manager Steve Parkin can bring in some excellent free transfers in the summer in order to launch a fresh attack on the promotion places in 1999/2000.

The full list of Stags matches is shown below (Division 3 unless stated):

My selection of goals of the season:

Appearances (League and Cup - 52 matches in total):

Harper 51, Peacock 48 (+3 sub), Ford 45 (+3 sub), Schofield 43 (+5 sub), Bowling 43, Peters 43, Lormor 39 (+7 sub), Tallon 37 (+5 sub), Williams 33 (+15 sub), Kerr 31 (+7 sub), Hackett 29 (+2 sub), Clarke 28 (+9 sub), Christie 22 (+26 sub), Walker 21 (+20 sub), Ryder 19 (+5 sub), Linighan 10, Willis 10, Allardyce 6, Naylor 6, L' Helgoualch 3 (+1 sub), Adamson 2, Sedlan 1 (+5 sub), Hassell 1 (+2 sub), Cherry 1, Carruthers (4 sub), Rose (1 sub), Sisson (1 sub).

Attendances (League and Cup):

Average 2,963 Highest 4,095 (Brentford) Lowest 2,292 (Carlisle)

(1997/98 average 2,720)