After a sparkling start, Mansfield's star has dimmed in recent weeks. Will the 'Damned Athletic' play the role of Scrooge and pile more misery on Nigel Clough's festive season?
Last weekend after a fifth consecutive defeat, Mansfield manager Nigel Clough lamented the challenge of his newly-promoted side "playing in League One against ex-Premier League clubs." He was talking about Huddersfield after a home defeat in a match played in Storm Darragh's atrocious weather conditions.
This weekend, the son of the greatest manager England never had, gets another crack at one of the Premier League's former inhabitants and bizarrely, despite their spectacular collapse in form, Mansfield are sitting one point above the Addicks, one goal to the better and with one game less played. We're both closer to the relegation zone than to the play-offs at this moment in time, so, it’s fair to say that whoever comes up short under the pre-Christmas mistletoe at The Valley on Saturday might be kissing goodbye to their playoff hopes long before Santa’s sleigh is packed away and the New Year’s fireworks have fizzled out.
Thankfully though, the Addicks have never lost a competitive match against Mansfield Town. The Stags first visited The Valley in September 1972 in a League Cup match when we beat them 4-3. We then faced them in League fixtures for the first time in 1977/78 when we drew 2-2 at home in November 1977 and then beat them 3-0 up in Mansfield on the return fixture on April Fool's Day 1978. It would take another two decades and a short period of non-league football for The Stags before we faced them in the FA Cup, drawing the first match a goal apiece, before dishing out a 5-0 hammering in the replay thanks to a Lyle Taylor hat-trick.
These days, even if we weren't too fond of his attitude by the end, we'd certainly take his goals. Discounting the Cup thrashing of Walsall we're averaging a goal a game. With Mansfield scoring 22 in the league and letting in the same number, this is all pointing towards another draw. But if we're serious about promotion, about starting the climb back to being a Premier League club, these are the kinds of matches you need to win, as summed up by a great quote from Huddersfield's Michael Duff after Mansfield's last outing, which maybe Brian Clough himself would have been proud to add to his collection of sayings.
“These are days that no-one remembers, but it’s three points the same as in August when you’re in short sleeves and sunglasses, rolling it around all over the place. Three points is three points." That’s the ambition we need to have this weekend, but at the minute we aren't quite carving out the goal-scoring opportunities to turn draws into wins and put points on the board. By his own admission, Nathan Jones has concentrated on the defence and he says that the overall development of the team remains "a work in progress." A year ago, in December 2023, after 19 games we were tenth. Victory over Mansfield should leave us in a similar position a year on.
Meanwhile for those interested in a great story of another Clough's visit to Charlton, here's a reminder of the legendary day that he scored a hat-trick for Middlesbrough at The Valley in a famous 6-6 draw back in 1960 just one goal shy of the Huddersfield 7-6 Xmas classic.