A visit to the catherdral

"Whoever's up for it today get off the bus now!"

As the sun was rising in Mansfield, another away day loomed -York city away.
Two separate buses setting off at separate times from different locations in order to gain access to the city centre.

Here lie the accounts from the two sets on this albeit non violent (not for lack of trying) yet very eventful day.

09:00am Order of the day;
-Breakfast
-Beer
-Invasion

As per, the young up and comers of Mansfield are out in force dressed in their finery.
With a lot of talk from the minster men this week about our upcoming fixture the young guns were relishing the chance to head out on their own and get a result.
So with good numbers, they met early doors to sample a few of the towns finest slurps and they set sail north to see what the York Nomad Society had to offer.



"The lights turned red, so I put the call out, whoever wants it today, off the bus now!"
The bus emptied of 30 of Mansfield's finest young casuals,
Now these boys weren't just happy on setting up in one pub and getting rounded up by Old Bill.
Like dogs unleashed they searched for the YNS pub after pub but no sign of York,
The comments of an "easy day" made by the newly named "York No Show Society" had certainly got the backs up of more than a few of these young delinquents.
More pubs were searched, refusing to serve the young set as when they entered every establishment the mood suddenly changed - the people of York certainly knew they were there, even if the No Show Society weren't happy to make an appearance.


After a while, the hunt got boring, the message boards went quiet and with no word from York, the lads  -untouched by the police - headed to the Burton stone for a few of York's finest beverages, the young guns can certainly count this as a small victory.
Went in undetected. Took the piss. Came out unscathed.
Needless to say, I expect the YNS excuses to be rife and to be believed, about as much as Liverpool fans think they're going to win the premiership this season.





And as for the other bus you may ask ....

"Walked straight into the home end, lasted about three minutes, apparently not paying is frowned upon?"
Again another early meet, in fact very fucking early, the kind of early drinking George Best would have been proud of.
This mixed bunch of old and young ne'er-do-wells from Mansfield's surrounding areas didn't have the luck of going in undetected and were rounded up pretty much as soon as their feet touched the ground in York.
That's not to say they didn't have a good time of it.

Setting off early and getting put in a pub meant the lads had plenty of time to put away a few gallons of York's finest ales, Well lubricated and many without tickets, the lads had hatched a plan to get amongst the locals and head for the home stand.
In threes and fours they drifted in until north Yorkshire police got wise and swiftly moved in to escort them out, with no tickets it was back to the pub for more debauched fun and games.

Not wanting to head straight home, Barnsley was the destination, and again, although no action to speak of, the boys made it count, and relieved one kind landlord of a number of his beers for no charge, such a nice fella.

Back on their travels and one last piss stop in store, could their luck be in?
Two buses of Arsenal travelling back from Sunderland, the lads quickly on their toes went to greet our southern friends with many a friendly gesture on their way in...... as you can well imagine.

Only the lads who rushed over soon returned rather embarrassed as this was the special supporters bus from London....

I imagine a few felt like this young chap on the left.

Match report.



With the Mansfield team bus being held up on the M1 and the boys in yellow and blue arriving later than planned, our slow start was maybe to be expected.
Conceding in the third minute, however, probably was not in Mr Cox's plans.

Soon after, however, normal service resumed and as we have so many times taken control of the game and started playing our kind of football, An uncharacteristic burst into the box from James Jennings won the penalty which the ginger wizard kindly stepped up to, and despatched with the venom of a heat seeking missile into the back of the York city goalkeepers net.



This sending the travelling Mansfield fans into raptures, the constant beat of the drum and song after song really got the team going and we continued the pressure.

At the half, Coxy made what turned out to be a tactical master stroke, bringing on Lindon Meikle and Oliver Palmer who both contributed to our decisive winning goal.

The second half started equally with both teams pushing for the the advantage and it was Mansfield who struck.
Some great link up play from Meikle and Clucas gave the Chesney Battersby (or whatever he's now called ) look-a-like an opportunity to fire in another left footed rocket which was met by Ollie Palmer who deftly flicked the ball past the out stretched York keeper. His words were "I definitely meant to do it.."

Whether he meant it or not, who cares? A winning goal is a winning goal, and he's a centre forward so of course he's going to claim it.

All that remained of the game was the biggest off in York that day between Martin Riley and some cretin trying to have a pop, not bitter at all then....
Anyway this resulted in two red cards and Mr Riley being banned for the game against the Spireite bastards.

Other news.




Came across this on twitter today, Mr Cox has been keeping an eye on Greeny and hoping for a loan return, with our recent form and a proven goalscorer up top, this season could turn out to be a dramatic one,
Is it to soon to say the 'P' word?
...Unbeaten in 6, lets keep it that way.


Keep it casual

 MSE