WEDNESDAY, February 26, 1969 remains one of the most important dates in Mansfield Town’s history, the night three World Cup winners were defeated at Field Mill, the humble home of the Stags.
West Ham’s Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters, not to mention Bobby Ferguson, Billy Bonds, Trevor Brooking and Harry Redknapp, lined up for the Londoners but the Hammers lost 3–0, a scoreline that was perhaps the biggest shock in the FA Cup that season. As one newspaper said: “West Ham met disaster seven miles off the M1… in a Notts mining town of narrow, snow-covered streets.”
West Ham were seventh in the First Division when they arrived at Field Mill and had just drawn 1-1 with Liverpool at the Boleyn Ground. They had beaten Bristol City and Huddersfield Town in the previous rounds and no one expected them to lose the fifth round tie at Mansfield.
The Stags had disposed of Tow Law Town, Rotherham United, Sheffield United and Southend United on their way to round five. Their team had remained virtually unchanged the entire time. In goal was Dave Hollins, brother of Chelsea’s John, a Welsh international (unlike his sibling, who had won an England cap) who had played for Brighton and Newcastle United.
Stuart Boam, a 20-year-old defender, started his career at Mansfield but was on his way to bigger things. He was eventually sold to Middlesbrough for £50,000 and was known as a strong, determined and reliable performer. Scotsman Johnny Quigley arrived at Mansfield from Bristol City, costing the club £3,000. He had won the FA Cup with Nottingham Forest in 1959 and was 33 when he joined the Stags.
Dudley Roberts and Nick Sharkey both caught the eye during the FA Cup run. Roberts, who was 23, joined from Coventry City and played 200 league games for Mansfield, scoring 66 goals. He had been the hero in the third and fourth rounds of the competition against Sheffield United and Southend United. Sharkey, a Scot, arrived from Leicester City and represented his country at under-23 level.
Mansfield were struggling in the third division and relegation was obvious. They were one of four teams – Orient, Crewe and Hartlepool were the others – with 24 points. They went into the clash with West Ham on the back of one win in eight games. But West Ham were a team that had built a reputation under Ron Greenwood for being a purist football team, which occasionally left them vulnerable to opponents who adopted a blood and thunder approach. They had previously been beaten by lower division teams, most notably Swindon Town in 1966-67 and Huddersfield in 1967-68.
The field was very tough, recent weather had caused the match to be postponed twice and snow had fallen. Under the circumstances, Mansfield had a good chance to produce a shock result as West Ham would be unable to play their short passing game. The crowd at Mill Field exceeded 21,000, but very few West Ham fans had made the journey to Nottinghamshire.
The field closed the gap between the first division and the third division. For example, England’s World Cup-winning skipper, Bobby Moore, struggled early in the match and was also jeered every time he touched the ball for bringing Roberts down early on. Later, Geoff Hurst missed an easy chance when he fired the ball over goal from six yards. Mansfield, on the other hand, made some early mistakes but then rose to the challenge with gusto and took the tie to their illustrious visitors.
Initially they picked up their defense to thwart Hurst and his teammates in the attacking line, but once they became more confident their long ball play started to trouble West Ham. In the 22i.e The next minute Roberts, who continually caused West Ham problems, gave Mansfield the lead. He received a pass from former Leicester man Jimmy Goodfellow through a crowded area – “opening up the West Ham defense like a can of sardines” – and sideways past Bobby Ferguson in the Hammers goal.
Mansfield tightened their grip on the match in the 37e minute after Ferguson punched the ball clear from a Goodfellow cross, but Ray Keeley hit the ball straight back into the net from the edge of the penalty area. Keely described it as a “dream goal that you think will never actually happen until it does.”
The match was decided five minutes into the second half with a third goal, which was largely due to a clumsy error by Ferguson. He ran out of his area to collect a long pass from Boam, dropped the ball and dropped it to Sharkey, who gratefully finished in front of goal. It was an uncharacteristic mistake from Ferguson but summed up a miserable evening for the Hammers.
The town of Mansfield celebrated their 3-0 victory, singing and dancing in the streets. Manager Tommy Egglestone was understandably proud of his team: “They ran and fought to the last ounce. They made Mansfield proud but realized we were going to win as soon as our second goal came.”
Ron Greenwood was sportingly defeated: “If you miss your chances you can’t grumble about losing. I wouldn’t say we played too poorly so there has to be plenty of credit for them for playing so well.”
Mansfield did not know who they would face in the quarter-final as Leicester and Liverpool were yet to decide the tie, but Bill Shankly watched at Field Mill and expected West Ham to win even when they were 2–0 down. It turned out to be Leicester City, but they turned out to be too good for the Stags. In front of another large crowd, Rodney Fern scored the only goal to send Leicester through to West Bromwich Albion.
Mansfield still needed to secure their place in the Third Division for 1969–70 and they did so by finishing in 15th place.e place after winning seven of their last twelve matches. A year later they enjoyed another good FA Cup run, reaching the last sixteen before going down to Leeds United. They’ve had good and bad days since then, but has there been a longer 90 minutes in the club’s history?
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