Read all about our visit to Mansfield Town, of the English fourth tier, at their home ground, Field Mill, Mansfield.
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Where:
General Info:
Date of Visit: Wednesday, 23.11.16, 12:00
Club Name: Mansfield Town
Nickname: The Stags
Founded: 1897
Stadium: Field Mill, Mansfield, Capacity: 10,000
League and Rank: League Two (4th Tier) Rank: 13/24
Official Site
The Visit
On our way to Luton Airport – back to the sane world where you go to work and eat only three meals a day – we stopped for a courtesy visit to fourth-tier Mansfield. The town of Mansfield lies in Nottinghamshire, an area rich in greenery and no small amount of history – but who had the time or energy for that? The local stadium, which goes by the commercial name One Call Stadium, pointed to the greed of owners willing to sell their souls to the devil for a bit more money from some corporation or other, but its grey-clad metal structure still preserved the English tradition when it comes to sports facilities. The ground's real name, by the way, is Field Mill.
The big car park was, for some reason, full on that cold, rainy Wednesday morning. Signs of various sizes about all sorts of prohibitions, adverts and menus adorned the grey metal cladding on the front of the building, which hid the gleaming pitch on the other side. The training pitches were right next to the car park, and they were well looked after and immaculate. We went into the club offices, where we were met by the young hospitality manager, Matthew, who suggested holding the meeting outside, on the pitch. We followed him through corridors whose walls were decorated with blue and yellow lines, with the club crest – a stag – popping out every few steps.
It was pretty freezing outside, but we all stood bravely through the presentation of the plaque and flag, which Matthew gladly accepted on behalf of the club. Around us, the blue and yellow stands stood in silence. We imagined the 10,000 seats applauding their players battling on the pitch with restraint, and woke up immediately as another bone-chilling gust of wind blew in between the buildings. Not even a training session was due to take place there that day, as the team hadn't yet returned from the league match they'd won the evening before at Blackpool.
We parted from Matthew as friends, with a promise to come back and visit the Stags for a home game, perhaps next time…
In our traditional raid on the club shop, to the surprise of the ladies staffing it, we bought an official shirt, scarf and pin badge in blue and yellow – now we'd done our bit!
