Match: v Mansfield Town - Blue Square Premier
Date: Monday, December 28th, 2009
Result: Mansfield 2 Cambridge United 1
The Journey
Departure Time: 10.15am
Arrival at Ground: With eight of the last ten matches being at home, an away game came as something of a shock to the system; so much so that I almost set off in the wrong direction up the A14, heading towards the Abbey. That set the tone for the day. The A1 was in an uncooperative mood with traffic grinding to a halt while an upturned car was being recovered from a field … there are always problems when you park that way up.
We finally got to the ground at about 1.15pm to find that despite the capacious car park surrounding two sides of Field Mill, there was no parking available for United fans (or the press) at the ground. We were pointed in the direction of the Diary Crest depot (or 'Depo' as the ticket so phonetically described it) where the club did have room for us amongst the milk floats. £5 and a five minute walk later and we were ready to start the circumnavigation of the ground in search of press passes or anyone who knew where they might be hidden. It turned out that they were issued from a trestle table behind an unmarked door - albeit one that was shaded by an awning - so it was a bit more of a rush than normal to set up the broadcast kit and wolf down a Vegemite sandwich before going on air.
At The Ground
The Ground: Stands along three sides of the ground have been rebuilt in recent years and wouldn't look out of place at least a couple of divisions higher. Those behind either goal are almost mirror images of each other. The one to the left of the main stand contains blue seats with the word 'Stags' picked out in yellow, while behind the opposite goal 'MTFC' is picked out in blue against a background of seats that have faded to various shades of yellow.
While the stands at either end of the ground are single tier, the main stand is two tiered. A concrete wall marks the front of the upper tier, which slightly overhangs the section below. A long, wide press bench is at the front of this upper tier and affords a decent view of the pitch and, as the ground is built on a hill, an even better one of the town in the background. Actually, on reflection, the view of the pitch could be a little better - the width of the bench turns out to be a metaphoric double-edged sword as you have to perch right on the edge of your seat to see over it to the nearest touchline. And if you stand up and crane you neck a little, you can see into the visiting directors' area at the top of the lower stand.
Although the main stand is new, there are echoes of the Neolithic period in the design of this directors' area, with three rows of seats in front of a cave-like area that leads back into the bowels of the stand. Admittedly the seats were a little more padded than you might expect in Neolithic times, and the glass doors at the back of the 'cavern' were not entirely in keeping with the stone age design manual, but there was plenty of room between the two for a cave painting or two or maybe a large fire. In fact, the latter might not have been a bad idea given the yeti-friendly temperature.
The stand on the remaining side of the ground is in marked contrast to the other three. Decrepit and derelict, it seems to have been left to fall to pieces of its own accord. It's in such a state that even the press box has been moved away and its only denizen is now a man in a hard hat, stationed there to retrieve footballs from behind its chipboard covered façade.
Tannoy: Occasionally, very occasionally, the speakers are set to the right level so you can hear both the announcements and yourself think. More often than not though, the 't' in tannoy is silent … and this was the case at Mansfield. How I detest 'celebration' music played after a goal. When it's played as loudly as it is at Field Mill it contrives to make your teeth grate and your fillings vibrate. And it's counterproductive too as it drowns out the sound of the supporters celebrating the goal, thus removing any hope of a genuine atmosphere.
United Fans: Allocated the stand containing mainly blue seats, there was a decent turn out helped by subsidised coach travel for this match.
View from Away End: With no pillars other than in the condemned stand, everyone in the ground was able to get a good view.
Home Fans: Mansfield fans made a great deal of noise … but only once their side was ahead. The rest of the match was punctuated by moans and groans from the home sections with their anxiety seeming to transmit itself to the Mansfield players.
Police/Stewards: Much less confrontational than last season, they made no real attempt to get people to sit down.
Programme: A bumper 82 pages, albeit A5 rather than the more common (larger) B5 for £3. As you can imagine, 82 pages leaves plenty of scope of adverts, photos and articles. While 'The Stag' did have its fair share of the former, there were more than enough well written examples of the latter to make for a very good programme.
Food/Drink: Expensive. £1.50 for a reasonably sized cup of tea that took so long to brew it was more useful as a hand warmer than as sustenance. As for the burgers … although they smelled decidedly unappetising, they received an adequate report on the taste test.
State of Toilets: Those in the away stand were described as the 'most spacious of the season so far', while those in concourse between tiers in the main stand were pungent and very damp … and that was just the floor!
Afterwards
The Journey Home: Well the good news was that the traffic jam on the northbound carriageway of the A1 had cleared by the time we hit the road home. The bad news was that it had re-formed on the southbound carriageway, so the journey home was painfully slow going. And then the fog descended … oh the joys of away travel.
Mileage: 232.4 miles
Total Distance for Season: 2,401.3 miles
Mark Johnson, with additional reporting by Paul Johnson, Ryan Johnson and Gordon McMillan
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