Field Mill
To be perfectly honest I wasn't expecting us to win on Tuesday night prior to the game at Wolves, therefore when we drew Mansfield out of the hat I was initially hoping we'd drawn Mansfield away from home. To my disappointment I was wrongly informed and in fact we will be facing them at Boundary Park instead. But Field Mill is one of those of the 92 I am eager to see more than many of the other ground. "Why Mansfield?" you ask. They've spent most of the last few seasons out of the Football League and it's great to see a club who have gone through hard times bounce back to back to where they belong.
Way too small to transport two sets of Football fans
But the real reason why I wanted Latics to go to Field Mill is because the one time we previously played them in 2003 I had one of those away trip nightmares. I was only 17 years old at the time, I didn't know as many Latics fans as I did now but I was young, I'd just left school a few months previously and had a bit of money. We were also unbeaten away from home, with a fantastic squad of players so I was eager to see Latics as much as I could. I had a free weekend and I set off from Glossop on the Train. The first problem arose when unbeknown to me at the time, there was more than one way to get a train from Glossop to Mansfield. I was advised by the man at the station to take the train to Sheffield then catch the Worksop train and then change again to go to Nottingham. I got to Manchester Piccadilly to see a few Latics fans amongst a crowd of people waiting for the train to Sheffield. On the same day Preston were playing at Sheffield Wednesday so the train (pictured) which one of those 2 carriage jobs that is way too small for a service between the two cities was crammed. I assumed that the Latics fans on my train would get off at Sheffield so in the pile off at Sheffield Station I was unable to reach my connection and therefore had to wait another half an hour for the next train, which would have meant I wouldn't get into Mansfield until ten to 3 and most probably missing the kick off.
Back in the days when every man had a huge bulge in their pockets!
Not too much of a hassle then, I'll just get a taxi at Mansfield station to the ground so I waited for the next train which was on time and left smoothly. Then came problem number 2, as the train went under a bridge somewhere outside of Worksop there was first a huge bang, then the train ground to a halt. Still in high spirits I just assumed that it was just the train hitting a branch and it was just waiting at a signal. Half an hour later the match kicked off at Field Mill and I was still in the same train carriage by this time with a crying baby and couple of kids playing hide and seek underneath the seat next to me. This was in the days before smart phones, instead I had a Motorola Accrington (pictured) with "Teamtalk action texts" (or whatever it was called) which would on rare occasions text my updates from the occasional Latics match. On this occasion I wasn't receiving any texts so assumed it wasn't working today which was to add to my frustration. I waited and waited and was told that the bang was in fact some local chavs who thought they would live life to the max and drop a breeze block onto the top of the train which ripped the fuel supply to the engine. Eventually the train managed to get a push from one behind it to Worksop...... at 4:45pm. I was oblivious to the scoreline and my battery went dead. When the train got to Worksop, I had to turn around and get the train home.
My parents in their sympathy decided to take me out for a curry, when I met my Dad at the station who had been listening to it on Latics World and told me that I apparently "missed a classic match" with three sendings off and a last minute winner from Fitz Hall to which red carded David Eyres jumped onto the pitch which wound up the home fans. A few years later, I told this tale to a fellow Latics fan on an away trip and it turned out that he was one of those Latics fans on the train from Piccadilly and he went on to Nottingham and got the train up from there.
It may not be a Footballing Mecca, but I feel that if this 2nd Round match goes to a replay I must defeat my demons and visit Field Mill.
No comments:
Post a Comment