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MANSFIELD TOWN |
Mansfield were beaten play-off finalists in 2003/4 under Keith Curle, losing on penalties to Huddersfield after a 0-0 draw, and they were fancied again this season. However, Curle left the club under a rather large cloud in November and Carlton Palmer took over, initially as caretaker and permanently last week, and things, well, haven’t exactly gone to plan. Palmer has certainly made an impact, although it’s not an entirely good one, criticising fans for their lack of support and slating Derek Asamoah’s attitude (Asamoah was sold to Lincoln City shortly afterwards), and the club have slipped in the table with the play-offs now pretty-much out of reach. |
| How are they doing? |
The Stags are 15th in Division Three, two places and three points ahead of Rovers. It’s disappointing for one of the pre-season favourites and the loss of Keith Curle seems to have affected both results and the good, flowing football they played under him. Recent form hasn’t been great overall, although of their last five away they have only lost one, winning two (at Bury and Notts County, both in February) and drawing two. Speaking of drawing, Mansfield have drawn twelve so far this season, six of those on their travels, so (say it quietly) number nineteen for Rovers could just be on the cards. |
Anyone to look out for? |
| Colin Larkin leads the scoring this season with ten so far and Mansfield have also made some decent signings, including paying West Brom £50,000 for midfielder Simon Brown in December. According to a number of Mansfield fans however, the quality of signings is rather difficult to determine under Palmer as the manager has the ability to transform them all into, well, a pretty standard level of rubbish. And if that sounds familiar at all then wait ‘til you hear some of the other complaints against the Stags’ boss. |
| He likes to have a go! |
| Midfielder Adam Murray has had twenty-four shots on target this season – more than any other Stags’ player. |
| Sheedhead Alert |
| With the departure of Curle – a link to both sides of Bristol – the sheedhead links seem to have died out. Defender Craig Woodman played nine games on loan at Mansfield earlier this season but as far as Saturday goes it looks as if there’s no one to abuse - again. |
| What about Rovers connections? |
Craig Disley moved to Rovers from Mansfield in the summer and will no doubt want to show their fans what they’re missing while the Stags had former Gas man Guy Ipoua on loan last autumn. Ryan Williams started his career at Mansfield and Rovers physio Phil Kite had a spell on loan at Mansfield in 1991/92. |
| Any rivals? |
| Notts County are their major rivals and last month’s win at Meadow Lane was watched by more Mansfield fans than the club has recently been getting at home. Yorkshire teams in particular dislike Mansfield because of the miners strike of twenty years ago and chants of “scabs” are still heard when they play any number of clubs. Feel free to give it a go on Saturday. |
| Last time we met? |
| Rovers won two nil on the opening day of the season with an Agogo goal in each half. Given Mansfield’s pre-season credentials it was a win that gave Rovers fans huge hope for the season…how things change eh? |
| How’s things on the home front? |
The suspension and subsequent sacking of Keith Curle after ‘bullying’ allegations led to the appointment of Carlton Palmer as manager and it’s fair to say this has not been a popular choice. Palmer is a friend of Stags’ Chairman Keith Haslam and you’ve got to admit that his record of p23 w6 d8 l9 wouldn’t be enough to land the job on a permanent basis at most clubs. Palmer though was handed the reins on a full-time basis just last week, after Curle’s appeal was turned down. While Palmer may have friends in the boardroom, it’s a different matter on the terraces (as Palmer himself acknowledged recently) with fans unhappy about the manager’s negative tactics, his ability to turn good players into clodhoppers and his propensity to blame everything other than himself for Mansfield’s poor form. If that sounds familiar then take a look at this comment about Palmer, found on the Stags Online website and posted coincidently by “West Stand Man” " …he has an excuse book the size of Encyclopaedia Britannica, though strangely not one of the entries include "it was my fault" On this evidence it seems that Carlton Palmer is Ian Atkins’ long lost son. |
| Will they bring many? |
| Probably not. The Stags brought 307 last season but the Carlton Palmer factor is hitting the home crowds big time and there’s no reason to expect it to be any different for an away fixture, especially one against another team with nothing to play for. |
| ‘Fascinating’ fact? |
Mansfield have only converted 50% of the penalties they have been awarded in Division Three this season, putting away two out of four – both of those since February. |
| The Big Question of the Day |
Is it really only seven months since that glorious day full of hope at Field Mill? |
| Possible Tabloid Headlines |
JAMES HUNTS SCABS DOWN Oops, typing error, we meant to say: JAMES HUNTS STAGS DOWN STAGGERED! |
| Probable Tabloid Headlines |
| ROVERS IN BORE DRAW |
LINKS |
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