by Tippy Tappy Football » Tue Oct 02, 2018 2:00 pm
A much needed 3 points for the Stags and David Flitcroft. It was a strange game as Mansfield did not play well in the 1st half. We thought a draw would have been a fair result at half time although David Cornell made a great save to stop the point blank Matt Preston header just before half time.
Tyler Walker had another quiet game and it was good to see Danny Rose stepping forward and showing why he is the best striker at the club. Once Danny had created and scored the 2nd goal then we looked a different team. It was also good to see CJ Hamilton being unleashed from his right wing back role for the last 15/20 minutes. I would always do this for the last part of the game and tell CJ to stay up the pitch on the last man. His speed will always mean he can put pressure on defenders and get us up the pitch.
In the end Danny was rightly the MOM closely followed by Timi Elsnik. It's strange that the last two Mansfield managers have had difficulty recognising that Danny Rose is the best striker at the club when the fans could have told them this from the beginning. However good managers appreciate when they have made a mistake and hopefully David Flitcroft will now join Steve Evans in becoming a fan of Danny Rose and give him a regular starting place in the side. If he continues to score goals then he could be worth a lot of money in January.
Overall, an excellent win for the Stags but it must be said that Northampton looked a very poor side in the 2nd half. The worst side I have seen since Port vale last season. Something was clearly wrong at the County Ground and it was no surprise that "Stone Cold" Dean Austn was relieved of his duties and replaced yesterday by former Stags manager, Keith "Mysterious" Curle.
Oldham Athletic will be much tougher opposition tonight and are another bogey side for the Stags. Our last home league win against them was in Feb 1972 when Frank Wignall and John Fairbrother gave us a 2-1 win. I can still remember Steve Taylor scoring the goals for them when they beat us 2-0 in Division 2 in 1977 at a foggy Field Mill. We later signed him from Oldham in 1979 for a record fee of £75,000. We have though only played Oldham twice in the league since 1972. 3 points tonight would be a great boost for everybody at Field Mill. COYS!!
