August 06, 2003
Mansfield Town: An away supporter's guide
RTG’s totally and utterly (we hope) indispensable guide to this season’s away grounds.
THE OPPO – Mansfield Town, aka “The Stags”
DATE – Wednesday 13th August
KO TIME – 7.45pm
THE GROUND – Field Mill Ground, Quarry Lane, Mansfield NG18 5DA, click here for a map, the arrow in the middle points to where the ground is.
Field Mill is close to Mansfield town centre, just off the A60 Nottingham Road and very close to the local railway station. Away supporters are allocated tickets in the Quarry Lane end.
GOING BY CAR?
The M1 runs relatively close to Mansfield, so it’s one of the easiest and hopefully fastest routes to go for from the north-east (A1 all the way to the M1, or A1, M18, M1 – whichever route takes your fancy) . Leave at jcn 28 and take the A38 signposted Mansfield, for 4 miles (you’ll pass through Sutton-in-Ashfield on the way). At the King’s Mill roundabout go straight ahead, then turn right at the next major crossroads, then second left (the left turn after you’ve crossed the railway line) into Quarry Lane and the ground is about a mile ahead on the left. On-street parking is, apparently, not too much of a problem.
GOING BY TRAIN?
Mansfield is a stop on the ‘Robin Hood Line’ which links Nottingham with Worksop, so you’ll need to travel to one of those two stations first, then change for Mansfield (you can get a direct train to Nottingham from London St Pancras, Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester and Liverpool). A word of warning though – there are limited connections from Mansfield after an evening kickoff, check the details before you set off. Go to the National Rail website to see what trains are available for that day. And make sure you don’t end up on a train to Mansfield Woodhouse….close, but no cigar – but a two mile hike to get on with.
Mansfield station is very close to the Field Mill ground - you can see the ground itself when you leave the station. Follow the signs to Stockwell Gate and the bus station, down the steps, left along the dual carriageway and straight on at the first set of lights, along Portland Street – turn right at the next lights into Quarry Lane.
SCRAN AND BOOZE
The Early Doors is the closest pub to the ground, at the junction of Quarry Lane and Nottingham Road. 5-10 minutes’ walk away on Nottingham Road are The Plough (good selection of beers and good food) and The Famous Talbot (both with a good selection of beers and good food). The Lord Byron is at the opposite end of Quarry Lane to the ground and if you approach from the M1 jcn 28, this is the last pub you pass before you get to the ground. Avoid the Victoria and Red Lion pubs.
For fast food there’s a KFC between Safeway and Curry’s on Nottingham Road, and close to that – on Park Lane Road – there’s the obligatory McDonalds. There’s a chippy and a Chinese just down from The Famous Talbot pub – oh, and more pubs in the Market Square in Mansfield town itself.
Or if you stop at Tibshelf services on the M1 (between jcns 28 and 29) it’s relatively new, very clean and well-organised, and has several options for nosh – Wimpy, a KFC-lookalike thing, Costa Coffee and the usual standard motorway services café and ‘sells-everything’ shop with sarnies, pasties, crisps, sweets, pop etc.
LEND US A FIVER I’M OUT OF CASH
The Safeway on Nottingham Road has Abbey National and Royal Bank of Scotland cash machines, and there’s also one in the ‘One Stop’ shop on Moor Lane, or stop at the aforementioned Tibshelf Services before you leave the M1 and there are cash machines in with the shops/eateries.
IN THE NEWS
They’ve just signed central defender Tony Vaughan from Motherwell.
They recently beat Premiership side Man City 2-1 in a pre-season friendly
They’ve decided not to field a team in the coming season’s reserve league, opting for a string of friendly matches instead.
LAST SEASON
Final league position – 23rd of 24 – relegated to Div III
P 46 W12 D8 L26 F66 A97 Pts 44
HEAD TO HEAD
Mansfield and Sunderland have only met 4 times previously, all in league matches; and we’ve won them all.
LAST MEETINGS
26/04/88: Mansfield 0, Lads 4 (old Div III)
31/08/87: Lads 4, Mansfield 1 (old Div III)
18/03/78: Lads 1, Mansfield 0 (old Div II)
22/10/77: Mansfield 1, Lads 2 (old Div II)
TRIVIA
- Best league win: 9-2 vs Rotherham back in December 1932.
- Worst league defeat: 1-8 vs Walsall in January 1933.
- Record transfer fee paid: £150,000 to Carlisle for Lee Peacock (October 97)
- Record transfer fee received: £655,000 from Spurs, for Colin Calderwood (July 93)
- They started life as a cricket team; in 1840 the Greenhalgh family founded a cricket club in Mansfield (they ran a cotton mill and named the ground after it – hence ‘Field Mill’) and some years later branched out, founding Greenhalgh FC which eventually became Mansfield Town FC.
- Field Mill is one of the oldest football grounds in the world, footy has been played there since 1861
- In the 74/75 season, they scored over 100 goals during the season (all competitions)
Credits: Mansfield Town official website, Stagsonline.com, Rough Guide to English Football, Soccerbase, www.streetmap.co.uk, National Rail.
Preston North End: An away supporters' guide
RTG’s totally and utterly (we hope) indispensable guide to this season’s away grounds.
THE OPPO – Preston North End, aka “The Lillywhites”
DATE – Saturday 23rd August
KO TIME – 5.35pm (to facilitate Sky telly coverage)
THE GROUND – Deepdale, Sir Tom Finney Way, Preston, click here for a map, the red circle in the middle highlights where the ground is, zoom in and out using the controls on the left of the screen.
Deepdale is just to the north of Preston town centre, in the Moor Park area of town and just off the A6063. And it’s not all that far away from HMP Preston if you misbehave.
GOING BY CAR?
Unless you live in north-west England anyway it’s a bit of a pain – travelling from the north-east, you’ve got a choice of routes but you’ve got to cross them thar hills at some point. The A1 down to Pontefract then onto the M62, M61 then M6, OR the A66 and A685 to Tebay then down the M6 to Preston are the most obvious routes unless you fancy a country ramble - unlikely for a midweek evening game though…. Approaching from the south it’s more straightforward but a long hike nonetheless.
Once you’re on the M6, leave at jcn 31 and follow signs for Preston and proceed on up the hill – be warned though, one of the Preston fan-sites highlights this as a stretch favoured by the long arm of the law holding a speed camera, so go easy unless you want a souvenir speed ticket. When you get to the roundabout overlooked by the Hesketh Arms, turn right onto Blackpool Road – before long you’ll see the floodlights for Deepdale on the left. You’ll arrive at a major road juntion where you should turn left at the traffic lights, onto Sir Tom Finney Way.
You can park at Moor Park (facing the ground on your right) or there’s limited on-street parking, and some local schools offer secure parking for a couple of quid. If you can’t find a space, head back out of town and use the ‘Soccerbus’ park and ride scheme.
GOING BY TRAIN?
If you get the 13.24 from Newcastle station, you’d change at Carlisle 1hr 20mins later, and end up in Preston just after 4pm – plenty of time for a pint and some nosh before kickoff. Coming back, however, isn’t so easy – you leave Preston at 8.21pm, change at Manchester at 9.20, again at York at 11.15pm and you don’t get back into Newcastle until twenty to one on the Sunday morning. Nice.
If you’re approaching from the south using the West Coast mainline, however, you could be in for trouble; there’ll be major engineering work going on affecting that line during August – the Virgin Trains website has all the details.
Go to the National Rail website to see what trains are available for that day.
If you do decide to let the train take the strain, you leave Preston station by the large glass doors by the ticket office. Walk up the hill and turn right at the main road, cross the station approach road and you’re onto a road called Fishergate. Walk along Fishergate then downhill along Church Street until you reach the junction with the ring road. Cross the ring road and turn left onto Deepdale Road; after 5-10 mins walk it becomes Sir Tom Finney Way, and the ground’s on your right.
If you can’t be arsed to walk, you can get a taxi outside the station and the journey to the ground will set you back about a fiver.
SCRAN AND BOOZE
The Legends pub at the rear of the Tom Finney stand welcomes both home AND away supporters, and The Sumners is another bar which welcomes both sets of supporters – you’ll find it by walking past the stadium up Sir Tom Finney Way, straight on at the lights and you’ll see a Sainsburys on the right; carry on up that hill, pass the garage and The Sumners pub is on the right, or The Garrison, opposite.
A lot of away fans also use the “Toy Soldier” pub/restaurant which you’ll find at Deepdale Retail Park.
Preston North End run their own catering services inside the ground, with the usual array of pies, burgers, drinks etc on offer.
LEND US A FIVER…
The Halifax have a cash machine at the ground itself or there’s a Co-Op Bank machine within the Co-Op store on Harewood Road, not far from the ground. At the Sainsburys we mentioned earlier, there are Abbey National, Royal Bank of Scotland and Sainsburys Bank cash machines, so no shortage of places to get at your dosh.
IN THE NEWS
Jamaican centre-back Claude Davis has just signed a one-year loan deal at Preston but needs a work permit.
PNE Player Mark Wright has just retired at the ripe old age of 21 due to a recurring hip problem.
PNE have warned Peter Reid they won’t let striker Ricardo Fuller go to Leeds Utd unless it’s for “a very large sum of money”.
LAST SEASON
Final league position – 12th of 24
P 46 W16 D13 L17 F68 A70 Pts 61
HEAD TO HEAD
Preston and Sunderland have met 100 times in league matches and we've won nearly half of those – 43 to be precise; Preston have won 28, with 29 draws.
LAST FIVE MEETINGS
23/08/95 Lads 3, Preston 2 (Howey (2), Kidd) – league cup
15/08/95 Preston 1, Lads 1 (Angell) – league cup
13/02/88 Preston 2, Lads 2 – old Div III
28/12/87 Lads 1, Preston 1 – old Div III
16/02/80 Preston 2, Lads 1 – old Div II
TRIVIA
- Best league win: 10-0 vs Stoke City in September 1889.
- Worst league defeat: 0-7 vs Blackpool in May 1948.
- Record transfer fee paid: £1.5m to Man Utd for David Healy (December 2000)
- Record transfer fee received: £1.25m from West Brom, for one Kevin Kilbane (June 97)
- Preston’s current manager is Craig Brown, the former manager of the Scottish national team
- Our own Kevin Kilbane (formerly a Preston player) married the daughter of one-time Preston coach Steve Harrison – now a coach at Boro.
- Deepdale is home to the National Football Museum
- Preston hold the record for the longest residency at a single ground of any club in the League.
Credits: PNE official website, ‘WTJOTP’ (PNE fansite), Rough Guide to English Football, Soccerbase, www.multimap.co.uk, National Rail, Virgin Trains.
Thornton handed international selection
Press release from Sunderland AFC
Sunderland's 20 year old midfielder Sean Thornton has been selected for the Republic of Ireland Under 21 squad for their forthcoming friendly game against Poland on August 19th 2003.
Healy passes medical, agrees terms with SAFC
Press release from Sunderland AFC:
Sunderland are trying to sign Republic of Ireland midfielder
Colin Healy before Saturday's First Division opener with Nottingham Forest. The club has held talks with the former Celtic midfielder but there are a number of issues to get straight before the deal can go through.
Healy, who left Celtic at the end of last season, has agreed personal terms with the Black Cats and the player passed a medical last night.
Now the deal rests on whether Sunderland will have to pay compensation
to Celtic. Under FIFA rules, no compensation is due to a player's former club once he reaches the age of 23, which Healy did in March. But there is a grey area over the rules involving the transfers of players between English, Irish and Scottish clubs - something Sunderland and Healy's agent are examining.
A Sunderland spokesperson said today: "We have been in talks with Colin Healy and his agent to agree personal terms and he has passed a medical. The situation now is that we are waiting for his agent to confirm that he is free to move to Sunderland on a Bosman and that there will be no compensation due to Celtic.
"Celtic have referred his agent to the International Football League Board agreement, which governs moves between English, Irish and Scottish Leagues under which they say compensation is still payable for a player aged 23 years and under.
"FIFA regulations state that no compensation is payable once a player
has reached 23 years. As there is a disparity between the two sets of
rules, and as Colin is aged 23, we need this to be clarified before we can proceed any further."
Colin Healy
Born: 14 March 1980, Cork, Ireland
Position: Midfielder
International Caps: 9
Career:
Celtic 01.08.98 to present time - 27 apps, 3 goals
Coventry City (Loan) 29.1.02 to 22.4.02 - 17 apps, 2 goals
Last season, Colin made only five appearances for Celtic, unfortunately not making the scoresheet in any of them: once in the UEFA Cup, once in the Scottish League Cup, twice in the Scottish FA Cup and only once in the Scottish Premiership.
He also made five starts for the Republic of Ireland and scored the second goal in Ireland's 3-0 defeat of Finland in a friendly fixture. In June this year he played the full 90 minutes in his country's important European Championship qualifier against Georgia, when Ireland beat their opposition 2-0.
