Archived News from October 2007
|
DEARDEN REACTION
|
 |
|
Chairman and manager thank away supporters
CHAD.co.uk, by Tim Morriss MANSFIELD Town's travelling fans won double praise today for their vocal backing of the team at Shrewsbury. Around 400 supporters cheered the team to a valuable goalless draw, backing the team as 10 players held out for a point to lift them out of the relegation zone. Manager Bill Dearden said: "Our supporters were brilliant today and could see what we were trying to do." And chairman James Derry told Chad: "The fans were fantastic, the 400 made as much noise as the 5,000 home supporters." Mr Derry, who telephoned the Stags Supporters Association as fans travelled home on Saturday evening to let them know his feelings, added: "The singing in the second half in particular kept the players going and I was very pleased. "They were magnificent, as were the players. They battled through well against the odds. "We seem to have turned a corner. On the pitch I felt that came at Barnet with the penalty save and them hitting the post in the last minute. "And yesterday, despite being down to 10 men, we might even have nicked it." ------------- Click here to listen to interviews from Mansfield 103.2 with Billy Dearden. ------------------- Audio interview with Billy Dearden from BBC Radio Nottingham (RealPlayer needed) http://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/realmedia/football/2008/stags_shrewsbury_away_manager.ram ------------ Hamshaw on the mend after scare CHAD.co.uk, By John Lomas STAGS winger Matt Hamshaw is recovering after partially swallowing his tongue during today's match at Shrewsbury. The Stags winger went down on 38 minutes under a challenge from Marc Tierney and stayed motionless for 10 minutes before being taken to hospital on a stretcher. However, manager Billy Dearden said: "We have just heard Matty is all right. "But, with losing conciousness, I don't know when he will be allowed to play again. "At first I though he had dislocated his shoulder, but apparantly he partially swallowed his tongue and was having trouble breathing when the medics went out there. "But they gave him oxygen and he regained consciousness as he came off." Stags then lost John Mullins to a red card in first half stoppage time, but hung on for a superb 0-0 draw, despite further injuries to Nathan Arnold and Dan Martin, and lifted themselves out of the relegation zone. "I am very proud of them," said Dearden. "We really showed our battling qualities today, though we have battled like that for a few weeks and not always got what we deserved. "We are out the bottom two which was our first aim, our second aim has to be to push on further and get into that top half soon which we are very capable of. "We knew what to expect from Shrewsbury and we dealt with all their crosses and long throws very well. In fact, I was a bit disappointed we didn't do better with the breakways we got in the last 15 minutes when they pushed forward as, if we had used the ball better, we might just have nicked a win. "I know John Mullins had committed three fouls. But you can't tell me their players didn't foul ours today and yet they didn't get a single yellow card. "Our supporters were brilliant today and could see what we were trying to do." -------------------- Gary Peters: "It was very frustrating. We didn't let one in, so we have to start with the positives. I thought we had enough of the ball, got it out wide and created a few chances and they headed a few off the line. "But we have talked about it in the dressing room - the quality in their half of the pitch was not good enough and that's something we have to work on. Our passing is letting us down. We are giving the ball away. "The lads are lacking confidence but we were in their territory so often that we have to do better. The fans have every right to have a moan and I'm moaning as well because we have drawn 0-0 at home to a team bottom of the league and down to ten. I can't fault the lads for effort, work rate and determination, but the quality was not there." |
Latest | October 2007