Daz’s View From: View from a Mansfield player.

[Super_Dazzler]

Morning all, I’ll never claim to be ITK but my career once in a while has put me up close to the odd footballer. (Annoyingly not many Blades)
I think the only time I’ve any put any info on here was when I revealed Jack Marriott had signed for Derby instead of us 24 hours before it was officially announced. Front page news eh?
Anyways, the last few days me and a Mansfield Town player have had a couple of meetings.
Obviously we spoke more football than business and he was telling me how shocked he was with the lack of effort from the Blades in our FA Cup game. His words were that “we were only going for it 80%”
Apparently at half time Cloughie was hammering home the fact we didn’t want it.
He also said some of our challenges were “half arsed” and “soft”
He was really surprised but said they just knew we weren’t fully committed and Mansfield fancied it from the first minute.
Nothing ground breaking I know but just thought I’d share his thoughts.
Didn’t want Burnley anyway!!!

 

[Gin&Juice]

Minimum 100 pages.

In all seriousness, I get it. Probably don’t want to be injured etc. Not sure if Wilder hammers them for it?

 

[Flumps]

I don't particularly care for tournament runs etc myself, not really something I care about but it can't be a coincidence Wilder more often than not goes out in the first couple rounds. I would have thought his obligation was to yknow, go for each game.

I mean it doesn't matter to me but feels like alot of people are annoyed with it

 

[BiggerBladeThanThou]

I want cup runs every single season. It’s a real bugbear of mine that some modern managers effectively throw their games. I honestly think Wilder is one of them. Maybe the cups don’t feature in the objectives set by the club because the £££ is incomparable with promotion?

Whatever the weather, it fucks me off we don’t seem to have cup success under Wilder. I fucking love the journey of the cups and Cloughie was the last one to really give me cup fever!

Again, well done Cloughie for - out thinking, out fighting and out playing us. Some values, eh??

 

[Kenilworth]

I want cup runs every single season. It’s a real bugbear of mine that some modern managers effectively throw their games. I honestly think Wilder is one of them. Maybe the cups don’t feature in the objectives set by the club because the £££ is incomparable with promotion?

Whatever the weather, it fucks me off we don’t seem to have cup success under Wilder. I fucking love the journey of the cups and Cloughie was the last one to really give me cup fever!

Again, well done Cloughie for - out thinking, out fighting and out playing us. Some values, eh??

Hecky was

The runs under Clough were great

Agree about a good cup run.

 

[Carlton Blade]

Home Cup wins >>>> 99.9% of league wins

So many of our most memorable moments are from the Cups.

Man Utd in their green and gold
Blackburn QF
Coventry penalties
Everything from 02/03
Everything from Clough
Wrexham, Spurs and Blackburn

I'm sure I've forgotten some

 

[Tazzy]

Going on a good cup run is special for the fans and builds confidence disappointing if any player cant get excited about a cup run and trying to win so called better opponents

 

[Weasel]

I think the thoughts of the Mansfield Town player only echoes what we all saw with our own eyes. I think effort was put in but only when they were in danger of getting a really embarrassing defeat scoreline wise. Then we seemed to step it up for 15 mins, before going back to walking football at 3-4. The players on Sunday certainly didnt do themselves justice thats for sure and were rightly pulled up for it by the fans and Wilder, i thought. Probably too many changes, yep. Too disjointed because of those changes... yep. But CW was right in that individually there were a lot of good players in a red n white shirt on Sunday afternoon. Not doing basics like marking correctly at corner kicks sits with the brain dead team we had on the day.

 

[NotTheSharpest]

Cup runs are great but if there is anything to play for in the league then I completely expect to rest first team players for the early rounds - perhaps as far as the fifth round. Then go harder…… I would have expected the team we had on the pitch to beat Mansfield but they didn’t and deserved the bollocking they got.

 

[Rodley]

Only 12,000 home fans turning out tells you this fanbase isn’t arsed either.

 

[Balham]

Only 12,000 home fans turning out tells you the fanbase isn’t arsed.

The fanbase and players putting in 50% effort comes straight from the manager. Everyone knows, for all his bluster, that Wilder is at best ambivalent towards the cups.

We got over 20,000 for the Wrexham fourth round replay and then 28,300 against Spurs in the fifth round in 22/23 because we all knew that under Hecky we'd give it a proper go.

 

[bladesince64]

Players aren't gonna get stuck in and risk injury if they think they're gonna probably be eased out.

Thinking of Chong, Ings, Mee, McGuiness etc.

Don't know what the excuse is for Campbell and Hamer though, they were pretty much passengers as well.

 

[Gimli]

Cup runs are great but if there is anything to play for in the league then I completely expect to rest first team players for the early rounds - perhaps as far as the fifth round. Then go harder…… I would have expected the team we had on the pitch to beat Mansfield but they didn’t and deserved the bollocking they got.

What is there to play for in the league? Realistically.

We’re more midtable now than in any of the seasons where we had good cup runs (maybe not the Clough one) so if we can’t go for it this year then we should never go for a cup run on this basis.

 

[Geordie Blade]

Again, well done Cloughie for - out thinking, out fighting and out playing us. Some values, eh??

It's probably a bit early to say that he out thought Wilder. If Mansfield lose to Burnely, have two players pick up long-term injuries and then crash in the league whilst we go on a run and get promoted, I'd say that Wilder's thinking was better than Clough's. I'm not saying that'll happen - just that it's too early to judge whether the respective gambles paid off.

Out fighting and out playing - 100% right.

 

[ancientblade]

What is there to play for in the league? Realistically.

We’re more midtable now than in any of the seasons where we had good cup runs (maybe not the Clough one) so if we can’t go for it this year then we should never go for a cup run on this basis.

spot on put same on another thread wilder must still fancy us for a run at the play offs or he would have gone for it and i think he was hiding behind the players sunday we all know hes not bothered about the cups

 

[Rodley]

The fanbase and players putting in 50% effort comes straight from the manager. Everyone knows, for all his bluster, that Wilder is at best ambivalent towards the cups.

We got over 20,000 for the Wrexham fourth round replay and then 28,300 against Spurs in the fifth round in 22/23 because we all knew that under Hecky we'd give it a proper go.

Takes two to tango though and we’ve got poor attendances in the third round for years. There’s people moaning about this who didn’t bother turning out, and probably haven’t been to an FA Cup third round match since God were a lad.

 

[Gin&Juice]

Only Mansfield play I know is Chris Greenacre.

 

[BiggerBladeThanThou]

It's probably a bit early to say that he out thought Wilder. If Mansfield lose to Burnely, have two players pick up long-term injuries and then crash in the league whilst we go on a run and get promoted, I'd say that Wilder's thinking was better than Clough's. I'm not saying that'll happen - just that it's too early to judge whether the respective gambles paid off.

Out fighting and out playing - 100% right.

He out thought us because our team was of a better quality, more valuable all over the pitch yet we shipped 4 goals at home. He out thought us tactically on the day.

 

[BiggerBladeThanThou]

Takes two to tango though and we’ve got poor attendances in the third round for years. There’s people moaning about this who didn’t bother turning out, and probably haven’t been to an FA Cup third round match since God were a lad.

We only get good home 3rd round attendances for glamour ties - local derbies or top half prem teams. The timing of the 3rd round is also abit wank. I’d be very much in favour of moving it to Boxing Day! That would be such a good tradition IMO.

 

[Revolution]

We only get good home 3rd round attendances for glamour ties - local derbies or top half prem teams. The timing of the 3rd round is also abit wank. I’d be very much in favour of moving it to Boxing Day! That would be such a good tradition IMO.

If you do that it will mean that many lower division sides will not have a Boxing Day fixture, as they are already out and their league opponents are not, so it's not a good idea.

 

[JohnDenver]

Takes two to tango though and we’ve got poor attendances in the third round for years. There’s people moaning about this who didn’t bother turning out, and probably haven’t been to an FA Cup third round match since God were a lad.

I’d forgive anyone who attended last year’s Cardiff tie for swerving Mansfield. I missed Barnet a few years before, but Cardiff was exquisitely awful.

 

[Gimli]

I’d forgive anyone who attended last year’s Cardiff tie for swerving Mansfield. I missed Barnet a few years before, but Cardiff was exquisitely awful.

Thursday night, awful weather, threadbare squad - as you say it was exquisitely awful!

 

[Silent Blade]

When I started following football in 1970 our league season lasted 42 games and we fielded strong teams in cup matches. Nowadays it feels that league seasons have 4 games too many hence the weak teams in cup matches.

 

[3Cheers4Ramirez]

Only 12,000 home fans turning out tells you this fanbase isn’t arsed either.

I think 12k is excellent given that we all know Wilder doesn't give a fuck and the Kop was closed (wonder what Mansfield players thought about that?)

This is why I didn't bother and I bet at least 2-3k are in the same boat

 

[DaveBassettsgoneonholiday]

Home Cup wins >>>> 99.9% of league wins

So many of our most memorable moments are from the Cups.

Man Utd in their green and gold
Blackburn QF
Coventry penalties
Everything from 02/03
Everything from Clough
Wrexham, Spurs and Blackburn

I'm sure I've forgotten some

88/89 F.A. Cup under Bassett. Run to the 5th round from round 1. Deane and Agana, Almost dropping a bollock v Colchester at home. Eventually losing 3-2 at Carrow Road to a very good Norwich side. Despite being 21 I actually believed we could win it.
My first real Cup run since I started in 1972 !! I don't think we were trying to throw matches in that period we were just shite.

 

[Rodley]

I think 12k is excellent given that we all know Wilder doesn't give a fuck and the Kop was closed (wonder what Mansfield players thought about that?)

This is why I didn't bother and I bet at least 2-3k are in the same boat

We got similar attendances prior to Wilder. I don’t disagree that CW clearly focuses on the league and the Mansfield result was disappointing, but the fanbase have been apathetic about the early rounds of the cup for as long as I can remember.

 

[3Cheers4Ramirez]

We got similar attendances prior to Wilder. I don’t disagree that CW clearly focuses on the league and the Mansfield result was disappointing, but the fanbase have been apathetic about the early rounds of the cup for as long as I can remember.

To a greater extent than fans of other clubs?

It probably got worse when we started closing the Kop too. Most clubs don't do this. When did we start, 10 years ago or so?

 

[Carlton Blade]

88/89 F.A. Cup under Bassett. Run to the 5th round from round 1. Deane and Agana, Almost dropping a bollock v Colchester at home. Eventually losing 3-2 at Carrow Road to a very good Norwich side. Despite being 21 I actually believed we could win it.
My first real Cup run since I started in 1972 !! I don't think we were trying to throw matches in that period we were just shite.

89 is the first season I remember. Can sort of remember the Norwich one

 

[Revolution]

88/89 F.A. Cup under Bassett. Run to the 5th round from round 1. Deane and Agana, Almost dropping a bollock v Colchester at home. Eventually losing 3-2 at Carrow Road to a very good Norwich side. Despite being 21 I actually believed we could win it.
My first real Cup run since I started in 1972 !! I don't think we were trying to throw matches in that period we were just shite.

1989 was the first time that we had reached the last 16 since 1968.

John Harris' second spell teams did a lot of great things (by our standards) but were by and large pathetic in Cups.

We won 4 FA Cup games in the whole of the 1970s.

We also did not reach the last 8 of the League Cup between 1972 and 2003. That's a competition that generations of United managers haven't taken seriously.

Wilder actually reached two FA Cup Quarter Finals in a row with us, and very few managers have done that (2020 and 2021).

 

[Chimpan-A]

88/89 F.A. Cup under Bassett. Run to the 5th round from round 1. Deane and Agana, Almost dropping a bollock v Colchester at home. Eventually losing 3-2 at Carrow Road to a very good Norwich side. Despite being 21 I actually believed we could win it.
My first real Cup run since I started in 1972 !! I don't think we were trying to throw matches in that period we were just shite.

Norwich was one of the best and worst football experiences I had had up to that point (I was also 21 at the time).

Best: we were fantastic on the day against a really good Norwich side who were (I think) fighting for the (old old) 1st Division title.
Worst: only just predating Hillsborough, there were so many Blades there they opened the gates and let everyone in, tickets or not I suspect, far too many for the away end. I spent the entire match braced against a girder trying to stop myself being crushed to death.

Watching the highlights on MoTD later was also my first experience of us not getting any credit for a brilliant performance, no mention of how good Deane and Agana were, just a lot of purring over Robert fleck and Dale Gordon.