In the wake of our youth team's FA Youth Cup game at Bournemouth, a rundown of previous first team encounters might be interesting. This is to be found below.
Not only the Stags first team are doing well at the moment. This also applies to our under 18’s who have progressed to the third round of the FA Youth Cup, where they have been drawn away to Bournemouth, a club whose first team NEVER has been previewed in preview history.
This is due to the fact that the sides have bypassed each other in preview history. When the Stags gained their latest Football League promotion in 2002, Bournemouth went down to current League Two level after eleven season in current League One. And when the Stags were relegated the following season, the Cherries gained promotion via a 5-2 playoff final victory against a Lincoln side with Alan Marriott in goal. Oddly enough, our darkest hours in recent history are similar to those of Bournemouth. The proof: when the Stags dropped out of the FL a decade ago, Bournemouth were relegated to the basement due to a 10-point deduction for entering administration. Worse was to follow as Bournemouth had to start the 2008-09 League Two season with minus 17 points, incidentally the same number of minus points which Rotherham had to start with, yet both clubs survived the trapdoor. From then on, Bournemouth have been on the up, catapulted from League Two to the Premier League within the space of five years, mostly with Eddie Howe at the helm. And the Cherries are now in their fourth PL campaign.
But Bournemouth hold another record, never to be broken. Following their election to the old division 3 (S) way back in 1923, they remained at third level for a record 47 years before relegation on goal average in 1970. And incidentally, Bournemouth’s final victory at third level during that era was a 1-0 against the Stags on April 18, 1970 at Dean Court. Fact is that Bournemouth needed the points more then.
The Stags and the Cherries haven’t met that often in League history. Only on nineteen occasions have the sides played together over the years, mostly at third level bar two seasons. In the first of those, the Stags recorded the last of so far only two victories at Bournemouth, that due to a late goal from Kevin Bird on October 18, 1980. The Stags’ first-ever victory at Dean Court was achieved on April 15, 1967 to a 3-1 scoreline after two goals from Stuart Brace and a penalty converted by Peter Morris.
The following season, the Stags played their final league game at Bournemouth and lost to a 3-0 scoreline on May 11, 1968. One more Bournemouth goal then had sent the Stags down to fourth level instead of Grimsby Town during the Peterborough demotion season.
The sides also met in the Stags’ first-ever FL campaign way back in 1931-32 when the clubs won their respective home fixtures. The tie with most goals was played at Dean Court on Good Friday 1938, when Bournemouth won a 5-4 thriller. Three days later, the Stags gained revenge to a 3-2 scoreline at headquarters.
The biggest Stags defeats against Bournemouth are 6-0 at Dean Court in 1960 and 5-0 at home in 1971. In both those seasons, the latter in Bournemouth’s Ted McDougall era, the Stags went down, but when the Stags gained their first-ever Championship in 1975, Bournemouth were relegated.
Last time the Stags met Bournemouth’s first team was in the 1992-93 season when the Cherries won both games.
Played for both sides: Wally Akers (but all his Stags games in 1939-40 were expunged due to the outbreak of World War II), Adam Barrett, Iyseden Christie, Steve Cook, Luther Blissett, Derek Dawkins, Phil Kite, Dennis Longhorn, Trevor Morgan, John Sainty, Blair Sturrock.
The sides have met once in a cup competition before. On December 12, 1936, Bournemouth (who in 1984 famously kayoed Manchester United in the third round and in the 1956-57 campaign accounted for Wolves and Spurs) won a second round tie at Field Mill to a 3-0 scoreline.
League stats:
At Mansfield: P 19, W 7, D 7, L 5, GF 24, GA 26
At Bournemouth: P 19, W 2, D 6, L 11, GF 21, GA 42
1931-32 2-1 1932-02-13 2-3 1931-10-03 Div 3 (S)
1937-38 3-2 1938-04-18 4-5 1938-04-15 Div 3 (S)
1938-39 2-0 1939-01-14 1-1 1938-09-10 Div 3 (S)
1946-47 1-1 1947-05-03 1-3 1946-11-02 Div 3 (S)
1958-59 1-4 1959-04-25 3-3 1959-01-24 Div 3 (old)
1959-60 3-4 1959-11-07 0-6 1960-03-26 Div 3 (old)
1963-64 1-1 1964-02-15 0-0 1963-10-05 Div 3 (old)
1964-65 0-0 1964-09-12 0-2 1965-01-16 Div 3 (old)
1965-66 1-0 1966-05-23 2-2 1965-11-06 Div 3 (old)
1966-67 1-0 1966-11-19 3-1 1967-04-15 Div 3 (old)
1967-68 1-1 1968-02-17 0-3 1968-05-11 Div 3 (old)
1968-69 3-1 1968-10-12 1-2 1968-12-14 Div 3 (old)
1969-70 2-0 1970-03-16 0-1 1970-04-18 Div 3 (old)
1971-72 0-5 1971-10-29 1-1 1972-02-19 Div 3 (old)
1980-81 1-1 1981-03-21 1-0 1980-10-18 Div 4 (old)
1981-82 0-1 1981-09-05 0-1 1982-02-23 Div 4 (old)
1986-87 1-1 1986-09-20 1-4 1987-02-14 Div 3 (old)
1990-91 1-1 1991-03-30 0-0 1990-12-26 Div 3 (old)
1992-93 0-2 1992-09-01 1-4 1993-02-20 Div 2
Hopefully it will be a good test and a good game for the Stags youth at the South Coast.
Come on Mansfield!