Season 08/09 Stagsnet Match Report
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Altrincham
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Mansfield Town
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Senior 11 seconds
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Attendance: 1005 (210 from Mansfield)
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Date: 23 September 2008
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Dean Foulkes at Moss Lane
A gut wrenching display from The Stags at Altrincham that really cannot even be called a performance. This was the night that non league reality really thumped home. A tiny ground, home and away fans all sat together with huge posts in view of the action, toilets without lights or sinks ( and home fans share these! ) a thousand odd people in attendance and the Stags are behind within 11 seconds before most have even sat down. We have had no choice other than to try and be positive in our non league "adventure", but these away grounds that we hoped would be a one season novelty visit suddenly seem a damn site worse after nights like this. OK lets visit them once if we have to but we don`t want to lose here and don`t want to come back! Stags turned out in their amber shirts and some away fans in the seats commented that the directors were allocated seats not at the back of the stand as usual but behind the dugouts at practically ground level literally right behind posts that hold the stand up! Welcome to Alty. Before we had settled in our seats and thinking surely to God we will win here we were behind with a ridiculous goal. Alty kicked off and literally ran directly straight for goal, amber shirts appeared frozen in time and what looked a weak if neatly placed shot creeped into the net in one of the most surreal moments I can ever remember watching a Stags game. Even the Alty players couldn`t believe it and nobody dared to celebrate as time stood still, the whole ground united in sheer disbelief. Then it was almost embarrassed celebration and cringeworthy to witness. Stallard should have done better with a great cross that saw him fail to get a looping header on target and apart from a good save by their keeper second half the game was a dour non event. Although nobody in particular was shockingly poor nobody showed any initiative to try and make the situation any better. Gary Silk put in some decent challenges which were enough to justify man of the match but in truth its an award not worthy of the name. The tannoy announcer did announce both a home and away man of the match though, again that it the first time I have experienced that. Half time came and needing to escape from the home fans we strolled around and found a proper large non league style programme shop within the ground and you could also re enter the same pub if you wanted to that many Stags fans visited pre match - really bizarre and again non league reality biting deep. It was an embarrassing night not made any better by sitting amongst home fans, with an uncovered away terrace many chose to sit but with no segregation in the seats some tempers flared as many could not believe how poor the Stags were. Alty fans took great and gleeful delight in reminding the Stags fans that their side were part time and some of their players had probably been at work all day as well! Home fans celebrated the victory at the whistle like they had won the European Cup. They were a poor side but shamefully appeared to want it more and beat the Stags. Excuses don`t wash we HAVE to be better than this Stags. We could have played all night and not scored. Away record is obviously very poor and the facts are our first five non league away games have resulted in a return of just two points, one of these two points was a late comeback from two goals down and may even yet get deducted with an investigation ongoing! Three out of these five away games the players have enjoyed the privilege of overnight stays to help their preparation, one partly funded by Stags fans and results must improve. Worringly three of the next four games are away from Field Mill. Again the team are staying overnight in preparation for Salisbury on Saturday so lets hope and pray that this horrible night out at " Alty " is as low as it gets. Come On You Stags! Stagsnet player ratings by Dean Foulkes and Paul Taylor Man of the match: Silk |
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Report by: Dean Foulkes at Moss Lane
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Line Up:
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Gamble 6
Silk 6 Moses 6 O’Hare 6 Jeannin 5 Arnold 6 D’Laryea 5 Somner 5 Blackwood 6 Lee 5 Stallard 5 |
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Sub Line Up:
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Hurren (for Jeannin, 48) 6
Robinson (for Lee, 53) 6 Subs not used: Herriott, Shaw, McGhee. |
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Opposition Line Up:
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Coburn, Lane, Doughty (86 O'Neill), McGregor, Young, Densmore, Lawton, Danylyk, Elam, Senior (73 Peyton), Little (87 Meecham). Subs not used: Street, Ralph
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Referee:
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P Quinn
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