Love affair over?

At the end of last season, we decided to invest in a Mansfield Town bargain season ticket - £195.00 for 23 games - very economical.......

Good idea? We thought so, but personally I am having second thoughts now. Several things have made me wonder if I want to keep going to Field Mill. As season ticket holders, you always feel obliged to go and use the damn thing ..... despite the fact that there are other really attractive non-league games to go to.

As a "bloggist", it's alway good to illustrate an entry with photographs, but despite there being NO notice at the ground, both myself and Kev have been advised by a steward that we are not allowed to take photographs. Okay -- were asked politely and now we neither of us now take a camera - that's half the fun gone......

Then the unsavoury "grassing up" of Altrincham player James Smith from a video that appeared on You Tube also left a nasty taste in the mouth.

Then there are the Mansfield Town performances .... the league games v Forest Green, Histon and Eastbourne were poor, and to be quite blunt and honest we have been to better Central Midlands League games this season.

Then a couple of things happened at the Eastbourne game that also left a nasty taste ...

We arrived as usual about 2:45pm and sitting two rows in front of us were a couple of young ladies sharing an umbrella. It was a bit damp, to say the least. Now these young ladies were huddled under the umbrella for 15 minutes before the game started, all through the first half and halfway through the second half, when a Security Officer then asked them to take it down....what the hell? Sitting in a row on their own, in the rain, minding their own business, blocking no-ones view .....then all of a sudden it's a problem?

Also, at half time a young girl came and sat in the row in front of us. Again, she sat quietly, minding her own business, watching the game, with her feet resting on the back of the seat in front of her, without troubling anyone - until with 10 minutes to play, a Security Officer looked at her and said
"GET YER FEET DOWN, FELLER!!" - again the young girl duly obliged, but why was this a problem with 10 to go and not earlier? Again, I know the Security personel have a job to do, but talking to a young girl as if she was a piece of shit, not a paying customer was well out of order.

Saw this on the Eastwood Town forum - Eastwood have just taken on new "Stewards" ---

"The lowest point of many, being told by the gestapo in the hi viz jacket that we couldn't stand near the gate, because we were blocking an emergency exit. At the time there were about 40 people in the ground. And we have stood there for the past 4 years without incident. And without being spoken to like we were a bunch of dog turds.'See that sign? (points to a newly erected 6"x3" sign, some yards away) You can't stand there, you'll have to move. And take your dog with you.'

Could have been replaced with....'Excuse me gentlemen, I know that you may have been coming to the ground for many years and probably congregating in this very spot, but due to recent health and safety legislation it is now a legal requirement for me to inform you that by standing where you are, you are contravening such legislation. Could I politely ask that you carry on your conversation and partaking of refreshments a few yards over there, please? "

LINK

Politeness costs nothing, and at the end of the day, the people paying to get into a ground, however indirectly, pay for the Security personel. Would you get away with talking to your boss like that????

I am not trying to be controversial, after all, I have been a Stags fan for almost 20 years - a few highs, a lot of lows along the way, but something seems to be not quite right at the moment at Field Mill. Maybe it's time that MTFC realised they are a NON-LEAGUE outfit at the moment and started acting like they were non-league. The Eastbourne game was our 48th non-league game of the season, and I spent most of the game wishing I was somewhere else............