Wright At The Death

When normally arriving before opening time in Nottingham, I have a wander round the town for a while but today I made my way straight up to the castle - a bit of a steep climb with all my camera gear - and into the queue for the Nottingham beer festival.

Whilst queuing, Colin came scurrying past - he was a volunteer working at the festival and was off to do a few hours behind the bar before our game at Mansfield.

(left) Colin at bar C in one of his many bandannas

The festival is in a big marquee in the castle grounds and Colin was working on bar C so I went over to give him some business.

This was my first visit to this particular festival and it had a very extensive range of beers.

There quite a few tickets in attendance too which is a testament to the number of small breweries that were here - as well as the fact that there were still a lot of beers available - not bad for a Saturday.

The first beer of the day was the Prikarpatskiy Silny Kofe from Steel City Brewing in Sheffield – I’ve been meaning to try one of their beers for ages as the two brewers seem to have the right idea about brewing (despite coming from South Yorkshire) plus they brewed a beer in memory of one of my favourite musicians, Type O Negative’s Pete Steele. This was a oatmeal stout with a hint of coffee – not the type of beer I normally have as an opener but it was worked well and was very tasty.

Other beers tried included the Mallard Feather Light (a real lager – OK but a bit lacking in flavour), Kinver Light Railway. Great Oakley Tailshaker, Howard Town Snake Ale and the Kelburn Pivo Estivo. All in excellent condition too.

After a couple of hours I left Colin and headed off for the station and caught the train to Mansfield.

From there it was a one minute walk to the Railway Inn which was heaving, mainly with home fans but quite a few Darlo fans too. I'd texted Tony and he'd been kind enough to get me a pint of Batemans GHA in advance as the queue at the bar was quite deep (not surprising as it is the only really decent pub in Mansfield!).

Tony and Ray had both got into Mansfield just after opening before being joined by Lance, Brummy T, Brian and Trevor.

I only stayed for the one pint before heading down to Field Mill with Trevor and I was in the ground and pitchside about 20 mins before kick-off.

As I wandered to my favoured position close to the away dug-out - this is in front of the Bishop Street stand which has been closed for quite a few seasons which allows me to stand up to photograph - I saw Steve Foster who noticed me and came over for a quick chat (I used to sponsor his shirt during his time at Darlo so its the polite thing to do).

As seems to be the case at our matches these days there was a new face in the squad - Mark Bridge-Wilkinson who is on loan from Carlisle. Chris Moore was also back in the squad after being on loan at Spennymoor.

There was a major surprise with the team formation though which saw Ian Miller playing at right-back whilst Liam Hatch took his place in the centre of defence. Eh? Wot?

I don't know whether this was a last minute decision but it certainly seemed to confuse Darlo who were one-nil down within ten minutes.

(right) Darlo old boy Foster vies for the ball with the Darlo defence

Despite three of our tallest players being in the box, Paul Connor rose unchallenged to head home past Russell who had no real chance of saving it.

Mansfield then bossed the tempo of the game for the majority of the half, bypassing the Quakers midfield with ease with the result that Hatch was probably the busiest player on the pitch making good tackles and getting to a lot of high balls.

At the other end former Stag Jefferson Louis made very little progress against Foster and co. in the Mansfield defence and Tommy Wright was so anonymous I hadn't realised he was even on the pitch for the first thirty minutes.

On the bench, manager Mark Cooper spent a lot of time in the dug-out but was clearly visible as they have see-through dugouts at Field Mill - very cunning!

Meanwhile his number 2 Richard Dryden was doing most of the shouting, not just at our lads but also the poor old linesman who got the sharp end of his tongue for most of the half (despite not making any bad decisions).

Towards the end of the half Russell made a great save with an outstretched foot and it was this combined with some wayward shooting which somehow saw Darlo go in only one-nil down at the break.

At half-time, all the talk on the away terrace was of Cooper losing the plot and that he had to go - the typical Darlo soap opera. And after that performance it was difficult to argue against such logic but surely there was some method being this apparent madness?

So it was a huge surprise to all when we saw a totally different performance in the second half.

Josh Gray replaced Austin and we suddenly had Mansfield on the back foot, presumably they were lulled into a false sense of security by our shocking first-half display.

(left) Chris Moore skips past the Mansfield defence

Miller saw an effort blocked, Hone saw an effort cleared off the line before he could get to it and Tommy Wright slashed an absolute sitter into the stand.

Moore then skipped past a defender to go though one-on-one with the keeper but his effort went wide.

Darlo maintained the pressure for about twenty minutes before Mansfield woke up and started playing. They could have sealed the win with another header but Austin was on the back post to clear it.

Chris Senior was then drafted in to replace the ineffective Louis, and then Powell came on for the tiring Moore, and Darlo started to look dangerous again.

As the minutes ticked away the baby-faced ref awarded seven minutes of additional time - it sounds a long time but was not surprising after injuries to their keeper (twice) as well as to Hatch plus various subs - and Darlo pressed again.

As time was running out the ball was hoofed from defence by Brown - Bridge-Wilkinson headed it to Senior just outside the box who then took the ball past one defender and on to the byline before sending the ball across the six yard line where there were about three Darlo players waiting. This time Tommy Wright made no mistake.

The away fans went wild with several jumping onto the pitch to celebrate with Senior who for the second time in recent weeks has laid on a late goal for Darlo.

The game kicked off only for the referee to blow for time after just thirty seconds and fighting broke out close to the away end. However by the time I met Colin and we wandered to the station it all appeared to have petered out.

Brummy Tony joined Colin and I as we caught the train back into Nottingham and to the VAT & Fiddle where we met Argyle-fan Geoff (who was staying with Colin) who along with other members of the Green Army were having a consolation drink after being beaten 2-0 by Notts County.

(above) Tommy Wright scores the late, late, late equaliser

I had a couple of hours before my train back to London so was able to chew the fat for a while whilst supping the Castle Rock Screech Owl and reflect on the game. I'd certainly have settled for a point beforehand and hopefully we'll see Darlo improving their first half performances sooner rather than later...