'This
is our year' as a supporter I say these 4 words at the start of every
season and so does fellow supporters, but when supporters have said
it in the past , have they really believed it deep down. I don’t
think so. But this year does seem different, for the first time since
I started supporting Mansfield town football club, I actually feel
confident that we could win the league or win the play offs. It feels
very different coming up to this season, I expect us to finish in the
play offs, which is all knew as a stags fan for me, in the past I’ve
hoped and believed it , now I expect it.
For
those that don’t know I was born in Barnsley and have always lived
in Yorkshire and supported the stags, so some success is a long time
coming if you ask me, after putting up with Barnsley fans for years
and years, its about time I have some success. Obviously its not just
me that deserves some success, its all of the fans for supporting the
stags through thick and thin and I think this season is the biggest
chance we've had in 10 years.
As
it comes closer to the ' big kick off ' I am getting more and more
nervous and excited, questions just keep flying around my head; what
system will he play? Who is he going to play? What if we crack under
pressure with all the expectation? As a stags fan you get used to
asking yourself these questions after many years of wrong systems,
awful signings and games where we’ve bottled it!
The
system and players we should play- after looking at PC's signings,
I’ve always been thinking who will play where and who will play
more importantly so here is the team and system I would play. For me
it would be a formation of 4-2-3-1 with a back four of Beevers
Pilkington Dempster and Owens, which then will have a midfield 2
of.... well with these 2 positions I feel it could be rotated between
4 players- Tolley, Hand, Howell and Roberts and try and find which
partnership is the best. Then moving onto the attacking midfield 3
which would include two wingers, Meikle and Speight with Clements or
Stevenson playing the role behind the striker, now its almost obvious
who will be upfront, the man ... Matt Green, I don’t really need to say
much about this decision after the impression he made on the
supporters last season. With this formation I feel it plays to our
strengths as it gives us stability at the back, as we can defend in
numbers, by turning the formation almost into 4-5-1 when defending
and it would be very easy to hit teams on the counter attack as we
have 4 players acting as forward players. I’m not saying this must
be the formation we play, I’m just saying I would like to see how
it suits us , cos on paper I believe this is perfect.
Its
almost time people, its almost time for the drama to unfold and for
those 11 players to put us through more than we can take. We have the
players this year, we have the quality, we have fans. This is where
it all begins our Journey up the football league ladder. This is our
year and I believe it is. Mansfield town for promotion. Bet on it!
