My fun at Field Mill actually started the night before the Grimsby game! I spent Friday night celebrating the first year of John Radford's ownership of Mansfield Town.
The only disappointment was England surrendering a 2-0 lead, but on the bright-side we did still qualify for the European Championship. I find myself swaying even further towards the club over country side of the debate, i always used to be firmly on country side of things, i find myself enjoying the games less and less since Capello took charge.
A win for Stags provides far more satisfaction than an England one does and a defeat is far more painful.
However, there was a time last season when i was starting to feel the same way about Mansfield games, under David Holdsworth and Duncan Russell the team just lacked the quality and desire expected from your team.
The difference this season is we have a squad who want to play for the club, they are lead by a captain who would run through a brick wall for the club. He knows what it means to Mansfield fans as it means exactly the same to him.
Adam Murray is currently carrying an injury, but you wouldn't have known this at all had you turned up to Field Mill without the prior knowledge. He is suffering with damaged ankle ligaments and has been playing through the pain using strapping and pain killing injections.
It would be a massive blow for the club if he was to be out for around 6 weeks to have an operation to rectify this. This season has seen him shine and perform to the levels of his first spell at Mansfield.
I was someone who constantly defended him last season as he had not had a pre-season behind him and had played one game when he came to us. Despite this he was still one of the best performers in that Mansfield side.
The main differences this season are the fact he has players of equal quality playing alongside him, he no longer has to cover for the likes of Tyrone Thompson and can play to his strengths in the knowledge that his midfield partner, whether its Antony Howell or Jon Worthington will have the defensive side covered.
The difference between this seasons team and last seasons is that we no longer go down without a fight, we were very poor first half against Grimsby. That's not taking anything away from Grimsby who played some neat football at times. Last season we would have gone on to lose the game, however there is a real fighting spirit installed into this team by Paul Cox. They never give up on a game and as a fan you can't ask for more than that. You still go away disappointing at a defeat or a draw, but you go away knowing they have tried their best.
Adam Murray proved in the second half just why he was made captain, he upped his game and helped ensure the rest of the team did so with him.
It has been a joy to see the celebrations from him and other players, noticeably Ben Futcher who even on his first game into a month loan had his fists pumping in the air.
The players really seem to care about playing for the club and it is fantastic to see a result means as much to them as it does the fans. It would always infuriate me at times last season when the players would either fail to acknowledge the fans and leave the pitch as quickly as possible or give a half-hearted applause before swiftly leaving the pitch.
This brings me back to why i am losing interest in the international team and why i was also indifferent with the results for Mansfield at times last season. I began to question why i should care and get so upset about a defeat or joyous about a victory when there was a real lack of interest from the players.
A defeat for Mansfield would always ruin my weekend and leave me in a foul mood for the rest of the night, but by the end it was just a case of realising the squad was not good enough and a real change of direction was needed.
Wayne Rooney's ridiculous red card and the teams capitulation to surrender a 2-0 lead was very reminiscent of some of the antics suffered last season. It was a ridiculous challenge that was completely unnecessary, as is the case with anything in life, if it is hyped up enough people will believe its the case.
Unfortunately most of the times things that get over-hyped just end up being a major disappointment. England are nowhere near the standards of teams like Spain yet still make it into the top 10 in the Fifa rankings.
The experienced players are part of what was hyped as the golden generation but have continued to disappoint, take nothing away from Montenegro who deserved their point. But with the amount of promising young players and the experienced players who were in the team England should have been able to see the game out comfortably.
Off field drama continued again for Mansfield this week (no surprise there) with an apparent miscommunication on plan B and just what it is meant to be. I will wait to see what John Radford has to say to clear this up next week before passing comment on it all. I
t was a real shame after the great night of celebration at Field Mill and the fantastic result on field, that there is issues to discuss again. I don't want to get critical of the chairmen just yet, because make no mistake about it there was no alternative.
Without John Radford coming in last season we would not have a club to support this season. I will be forever grateful for what he did to save Mansfield and will give him the opportunity to keep his side of the promise.
The team, though early days does appear to be working towards its side of the deal of getting the club in a position to go up. John Radford has promised to ensure he keeps his side of the deal should it be needed come the end of the season. I see no reason to distrust him over a few PR gaffs that have been made so far since he has taken over the club.
That doesn't mean I'm wearing rose-tinted glasses as some people would accuse me of, i just appreciate what John Radford has done so far for Mansfield Town and don't feel any major concern is needed unless we are in the position to go up and Plan A hasn't been achieved and Plan B turns out to be non existent.
Despite a few issues arising off field it really does feel great to be a Stags fan again at the minute, Paul Cox appears to built a squad, which some people claimed was too big and likened to David Holdsworth's attempt of building a large squad which lacked quality. We have however, already seen signs that indicate this is not the case this season.
Luke O'Neill is a perfect example for this, he started the season as 3rd choice right-back with Ritchie Sutton playing there and John Thompson being the next obvious choice if not playing at centre half. However the horrific events at Ilkeston gave him the opportunity to break into the side. He has been a consistent performer and is probably fighting with Matt Green for player of the season so far.
He has been a fantastic replacement for Gary Silk, who despite being a massive fan of his was perhaps not of the quality required during his last season and certainly didn't reach the high heights of his first two with us.
O'Neill though is not only a better defender, but also has brought a fantastic attacking element to the team. His set pieces have already got him two goals this season and he also set up the winning goal against Grimsby.
It was something that was starting to frustrate me at times as Joe Kendrick has very much been the man taking set pieces for most of the season despite at times beings somewhat poor. Whereas, Luke O'Neills set pieces were causing a constant threat against Grimsby at when given the chance in other games were also a constant threat.
When asked about this Paul Cox suggested it was down to Luke being a quiet lad who wasn't one to be there asking to take the set pieces. Though they knew of his ability to take them from training.
It is clear to see why Sven did not want to lose him at Leicester and goes to show how clubs throwing money around to get success is damaging the development of young English players.
With all the talk of clubs watching Tom Naylor its surprising we have not had clubs asking about Luke's availability as not only has he been superb at right-back he has also had two successful games playing at left back where you would not have known he was out of position.
Hopefully the club will consider giving him a contract extension now and not make the mistakes we have made in the past of losing him to another club for nothing. Naylor and Futcher are other examples of the strengths of the squad Paul Cox has assembled. Many fans were surprised and disappointing that Martin Riley made way to make room for Tom Naylor, as he had been on trial at Burnley for the week and Martin was many peoples man of the match at Forest Green.
It is great to have such strength in depth and as long as Paul Cox can keep these players happy and so far he has, because hes not looking to keep his favorites in the team or changing it for the sake of it like David Holdsworth did many times.
Ben Futcher has been one of the key parts of shoring up the defence since joining the club, it was no surprise he came into the side and with Kendrick performances being dissapointing, it was no suprise to see futcher come into the side.
I was delighted to see Naylor back in the team, as there is no doubting his quality and he is still our player. Personally i still prefer seeing Naylor play at centre half though due to his superb distribution from the back.
Though with Grimsby having Liam Hearn and Rob Duffy upfront it fits with Cox comment about the defence having a soft underbelly.
Sutton and Futcher provide height and strength to keep those kind of strikers quiet.
Tom of course played right-back for Fulham in the reserve game against Manchester United and did not look out of place, so it is understandable to see why Paul Cox did this.
Hopefully we will soon have a conclusion one way or another to the Tom Naylor saga and John Radford will help to clarify the off field mix-up and we will gain another 3 points next Saturday at home to Southport.
I've refrained from committing to whether i think this squad is good enough for promotion as I've learnt from the past that getting carried away by a good start had somewhat clouded my judgement.
It is still early days but signs are there that the team is better than last seasons, it is getting harder not to get carried away because at times we have been fantastic, but i will carry on looking at it game by game and if we are still up there by Christmas i may start to believe this is our year.
We still need to see how we do against the top teams in the league as so far our only two defeats have come against them, perhaps we still need another striker to make us into a side capable of making the playoffs, but only two defeats so far is a fantastic start for a side that is mostly made up of new faces and of course led by a manager who only came here in the summer.
If we can cope without Ben Futcher until January and sign him and Matt Green and bring in another striker there is no reason why we won't be successful.
Onwards and upwards UTS!
