This is the story of Mansfield Town’s glory years of the mid-to-late 1970’s. So far in this story they won Division Four and then two years later, Division Three. They were about to embark on their first ever season in the second tier.
1977-78
Mansfield Town were formed in 1897. 80 years they had never been higher than the third tier of English football. 20 August 1977 they were embarking on their first ever match in the second tier. During the summer manager Peter Morris made two important acquisitions to bolster his squad for the tougher challenges ahead.
Dave Syrett was a 21-year old striker who’d been at Swindon playing under former Stags boss, Danny Williams. 30 goals in 122 appearances convinced Morris he was the man who could increase the firepower and take some of the pressure off Randall and Moss. If Stags’ fans were excited about the possibility of a Randall/Syrett partnership they were disappointed when Morris went with a Moss/Syrett combination.
The other signing was Pat Sharkey. Born in Omagh, Northern Ireland, he was bought from Ipswich Town. In four years he only made 18 appearances and probably welcomed the chance of first-team football and the challenge of Mansfield’s first ever second tier season.
When the fixtures came out Stags’ fans were overjoyed to find out they were at home for the first game. If they didn’t quite realise they were going to be up against some big names throughout the season they did as soon as they saw who their first opponents were. Stoke City were a First Division club the season before, suffering the drop by one point. In their side were England’s goalkeeper, Peter Shilton, Alec Lindsay, who’d won the league, UEFA and FA Cup with Liverpool, Howard Kendall, who’d won the league with Everton, Terry Conroy, capped 27 times for Republic of Ireland, as well as the experience of Denis Smith and Alan Dodd. They were managed by George Eastham, who was in England’s ’66 World Cup winning squad.
Before the league got under way they were in action in the League Cup. Lincoln City, then in the Third Division, came to Field Mill and walked off with a 1-0 win. John Ward scored the only goal of the game and four days later they defended it with a goalless draw. Mansfield’s League Cup run didn’t even yield a goal. Perhaps their minds were on bigger things?
Now for the league season. Stoke were one of the ‘big’ clubs Mansfield would come up against that season. A crowd of 14,077 packed into Field Mill to see the stars on show.
In the build-up to the game Morris had made the point he felt former First Division sides would find more problems at a lower level than those promoted from the Third Division.
Syrett and Sharkey were both in the side, with Randall on the bench. The first half was goalless but then five minutes into the second half Syrett pounced on a loose back-pass from Alan Dodd. He took his chance superbly, and even impressed the England goalkeeper.
Shilton said afterwards;
“How he got it past me I don’t know. I was perfectly placed to deny him any sight of the goal”.
Six minutes later Stags were in dreamland. Denis Smith handled in the area and Mansfield were awarded a penalty. The other new boy, Sharkey was given the responsibility of taking it. He had to wait up to four minutes before he could, though as Stoke fans invaded the pitch. But he kept his calm and beat Shilton to put the home side two goals up. Kevin Bird then thought he’d settled the game when he headed in from a corner, but it was ruled out for a foul on Shilton. But then in the closing minutes Ian Wood fouled Garth Crooks and the visitors had a penalty. Lindsay took it and scored but Stoke were unable to capitalise. Mansfield’s first game in Division Two ended with a 2-1 win.
Three days later they were up against a familiar opponent. Terry Venables’ Crystal Palace had taken on Mansfield four times in the last two seasons, and only been beaten once. But at Selhurst Park the Eagles had won both meetings. 45 minutes into this one and it was clear this wasn’t going to change. Palace were three-up by half-time. Syrett scored his second for his new club in the second half but it was no more than a consolation goal, as Stags went down 1-3.
They stayed down south to visit The Dell. The Saints were FA Cup winners just 15 months before, but were still a Second Division side. Lawrie McMenemy had added Alan Ball to his side, and with Chris Nicholl and Ted MacDougall also in the team they represented a tough task. David Peach scored from the spot in the first half and it remained the only goal of the game. The euphoria of an opening day win had now dissipated within a week with two defeats.
There was at least the home record, unbeaten in 38 league games. Brighton were the visitors at the beginning of September. Morris named an unchanged side for the fourth successive match, with Randall again on the bench. Alan Mullery had signed John Ruggiero from Stoke and after a couple of substitute appearances, he was in the starting line-up for the first time. He duly rewarded his boss with the opening goal. Steve Piper added a second and once again Syrett was on target and once again it was in defeat. This was proving to be a tough season already, they’d met the other two promoted sides who finished below them last season and lost.
Gone too was the unbeaten home run, stretching back to December 1975.
Changes were needed. One was forced as Ian MacKenzie picked up a knee injury. It was so bad fans would only see him pull on the yellow shirt once more in his career, and in the following summer he made the incredible decision to retire.
The other was a bit of a surprise. John Aston was a youth player at Matt Busby’s Manchester United. He was 10 at the time of the Munich Air Crash and was one of those Busby placed trust in to resurrect the club. At Wembley in 1968, on a pitch alongside players of the stature of Bobby Charlton, George Best, Nobby Stiles, Eusebio and José Torres, Aston was voted Man of the Match in United’s 4-1 win over Benfica in the European Cup Final. Four years later he moved to Luton Town and now Morris saw him as adding valuable experience to his team. Aston made his debut in the home meeting with Millwall. Another of Morris’ signings, John Miller, made way. The game ended goalless with Randall replacing Syrett but to no avail.
This was the end as far as Randall was concerned. He would later reflect he was at an age where he wanted to be playing, and four appearances as a sub just wasn’t doing it for him. He dropped down two divisions to York City. Randall has always been synonymous with Stags’ Third Division title season and remained a club favourite. Typically, he scored twice on his debut at Bootham Crescent.
Ian Matthews came in for his first appearance of the season for the trip to Cardiff City, in a game where Ernie Moss finally got off the mark in a 1-1 draw.
Burnley then rocked up at Field Mill still searching for their first win of the season. They’d been relegated from the First Division two years earlier. Despite having two talented wingers in Terry Cochrane and Tony Morley, Harry Potts’ side was struggling in front of goal. Of their two goals thus far one was an own goal. Ian Brennan’s first half goal was therefore a bit of a surprise, but Syrett was also on target as the two sides went into the break level.
In the second half Mansfield tore their opponents apart, which caused Morris to reflect how they had played in a way that Second Division football should be played. Aston was especially impressive and it was his good work down the left which created the space for a cross Hodgson gleefully converted. Three minutes later they were further ahead. Syrett, always a menace, was pushed over in the penalty area and Sharkey converted the penalty. It looked for minute as if Stevenson had saved it, but he lost his grip and it rolled over the line. Moss lobbed the Burnley keeper to round off the scoring for a 4-1 win. The only black mark was the sending off of the home side’s Colin Foster and the visitors’ Paul Fletcher as the two exchanged punches in the centre-circle.
Seven games in and they were lying 12th.
October
A week later they had back-to-back wins for the first time when they went to Hull City and walked away with a 2-0 win. Moss scored both against a side containing Billy Bremner, to register their first win on the road in the new division. Now they looked like they belonged.
But that was as good as it would get for October.
Defeats at Bristol Rovers and Bolton Wanderers were sandwiched either side of a draw at home to Sheffield United. Bolton were the early leaders, so this was no embarrassment but it was followed with successive defeats at home to Sunderland and Notts County. County had only picked up their first win of the season a week earlier, so this was a bad loss. The Sunderland result went largely under the radar as Tottenham thumped Bristol Rovers 9-0 on the same day.
Sharkey missed both home defeats which saw Morris don his kit for the first time in the season, but he couldn’t galvanise his team. October ended with the side in 18th, one of four clubs on nine points with only Burnley on fewer.
November
Syrett and Moss had five goals each so far, and both added to this tally in a 2-2 draw at Charlton. Six games without a win finally came to end at home to Luton Town. Aston missed the game against his former teammates as Sharkey and Syrett gave the home side a half-time lead. Miller, who was back in for Aston, made it three with his first of the season. Morris made his 600th league appearance and was especially influential.
Sharkey scored his fourth of the season but it came in defeat at fifth placed, Blackburn. Next up was the visit of Oldham Athletic. The Latics arrived at Field Mill fourth from bottom. After winning two of their first three games, they’d won just one of their next 13. Striker Steve Taylor scored twice to give him seven in as many matches and Oldham came away with a convincing win.
They were back down into the bottom three. This would be a long winter.
December
The Stags travelled down to London to take on Orient at Brisbane Road. The O’s hadn’t won any of their last five matches, although only one of those was a defeat. John Chiedozie and Peter Kitchen put them ahead in the first half, with Kevin Bird getting one back for the visitors. This saw the first appearance of the season for Barry Foster. It was also the first appearance for John Goodwin, who’d just moved from Stoke City where he was struggling to find a first team place. He was the fifth new player in Morris’s side but he could do nothing to stop a third successive loss. Kitchen completed a hat-trick in the second half. He would go on to hit 21 goals that season.
Mansfield were now second from bottom.
Blackpool were next to visit together with their free-scoring strike partnership of Bob Hatton and Mickey Walsh. The two were both on target at Field Mill in a 3-1 win taking the losing run to four for the home side. That long unbeaten run seemed a distant memory, having lost four of their last five at home.
They travelled to Luton Town to try and reverse the trend. Morris dropped himself and would be seen only once more in the starting line-up for the remainder of the campaign. Syrett’s last goal had come against the same opponents five games earlier, and he took the opportunity to punish them again to take his tally to eight.
The club celebrated Christmas just a point above Burnley who were bottom. Yet they were still only a point from the two clubs immediately above them, so they were still in a battle for safety.
Fulham arrived on Boxing Day. Sadly for Stags’ fans had this fixture been played a year before they might’ve been witnessing Bobby Moore, Rodney Marsh and George Best. Moore had retired, Marsh moved to the States, and Best had called time on his term at Craven Cottage six weeks before this game.
John Mitchell, who’d been a key part of Fulham’s road to the FA Cup Final two years earlier, gave the visitors the lead at the break. But just as the home fans feared a sixth home defeat of the season, goals from defenders, Colin Foster and Kevin Bird turned things around. They’d endured five games since their last victory, and at last they could celebrate.
But the Christmas period was always a busy one in those days, and 24 hours later they made their way to London to take on Spurs. Tottenham’s 26-year residency in the First Division had come to an end in the previous season. They were second in the table, two points behind Bolton and two points ahead of Blackburn, in third.
Manager Keith Burkinshaw had largely stuck with the same team which went down, just adding strikers Colin Lee (Torquay) and Ian Moores (Stoke), though both were absent from this game. But they did contain future England managers, Glenn Hoddle and Peter Taylor.
It would be the biggest crowd many of these Mansfield players ever played in front of, 36,288.
John Duncan gave the home side the lead in the first half, with his 11th of the season. Bird scored his fourth of the season and Mansfield bravely earned a point.
After four defeats three games unbeaten was a great tonic and hopes were high of finishing off the year in good spirits. Crystal Palace visited on New Year’s Eve. They were a much changed side from the one which beat Mansfield in their first away trip of the season. Only five players remained. They were also coping with the rigours of Second Division football much better than their hosts. Terry Venables was compiling an exciting young team and one of those tipped for higher things was left-back Kenny Sansom. He opened the scoring in the first half inside the opening 10 minutes. Barry Silkman played him in and he was given far too much time to shoot.
More defensive errors were to follow, and for manager Morris it must’ve been particularly galling to come so soon after his half-time team talk. The defence froze waiting for an offside flag which never materialised, allowing Dave Swindlehurst the simplest task of beating Arnold. Three minutes later they decided to leave him unmarked and consequently Sansom’s header across the area found him and he made it 3-0.
John Aston got a consolation goal, but it was a sorry end to a promising run, causing Morris to comment after the match;
“We made mistakes at the back which you don’t expect from a schoolboy playing on a local recreation ground. That’s the third time this season we have been on the makings of a good run and failed to keep it going.”
Palace were up to eighth, seven points off promotion. But the evenness of the points distribution that season was such they were only eight points better off than the Stags. They were lying 20th, two points from safety.
The euphoria and celebrations of Third Division title success back in May seemed a little distant now. It was going to be a long 1978.
All pics courtesy of Stagsnet & The Chad
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