by Paul Taylor and Martin Shaw
1910/11
saw the team in a regular mid-table position in the league, ending in an
equally mid-table position of 9th. April 17th was an unusual day,
however, as the first team played two matches! In a morning kick-off
they lost 1-2 at Pinxton and in the afternoon they recovered
sufficiently to take a point from a 1-1 draw with Stanton Hill Victoria
with eight players turning out in both matches. They were reasonably
successful in the cup competitions when the 4th qualifying round of the
FA Cup was reached.
And the semi final of the Notts Senior Cup. In the summer
of 1911 a new league was formed, it adopted the name - Central Alliance.
For the inaugural season 12 clubs were accepted as member amongst them
were Mansfield Town. Town had a very poor season finishing in 11th
place, one from the bottom. The new colours brought in for this season
(black and white quartered shirts and black shorts) obviously brought
them no luck at all. Finishing in such a lowly position meant that the
club had to apply for re-election. Lady luck did smile down at this
point as, with a plethora of clubs trying to get in, it was decided at
the AGM to re-elect the bottom two clubs unopposed and extend the league
to 18 clubs. There were mixed fortunes in the cup competitions when in
the FA Cup Town bowed out at the first attempt to Hinckley United. The
Club did reach the semi finals of the Notts Senior Cup where for the
second season in a row, where Notts County's
reserve side proved too strong. More trouble loomed before the
start of the 1912/3 season as the club were forced to find a new ground.
The Great Central Railway decided to extend their line through the
middle of the Newgate Lane ground. Given little time to find new
accommodation they had to settle for the old ground on Radcliffe Gate.
The club had played here before in 1900/1 season when there were no
league fixtures, only friendlies were played. The 'new' ground was
nicknamed 'the Prairie', and had no facilities what so ever, the players
even had to change in the Brown Cow public house. This was probably not
much of an imposition as they were used to changing in similar
facilities in the Carpenter's Arms when they played on Newgate Lane! On
the pitch the club faired much better than the previous season when a
comfortable 12th position was obtained. In part, this was no doubt due
to the goalscoring expertise of Freddie 'Fatty' Blackwell who netted 39
times to set a new Central Alliance record. He had only one season with
Town before moving to Shirebrook for two seasons. Blacknell then went to
war and was killed at Ypres in October 1916 aged just 24. Five matches
were played in the FA Cup before Sutton Town ended the run in the 3rd
qualifying round. The semi final of the Senior Cup was reached for the
third time in a row but, the other Sutton side, Sutton Junction
triumphed on their own ground. In the summer of 1913 the club were
warned as to the state of the ground. Numerous complaints had been
received by the Management Committee the previous season, and so the
club were given until the start of the season to improve things. By
October Town had been warned again, matters had obviously not improved.
The team struggled all season and did not win their first match until
the end of November, and in all, only six league matches were won all
season with the club ending in 13th position (out of 16). The cups did
not offer much consolation either as only the second qualifying round of
the FA Cup was reached and the first round of the Senior Cup. The lowly
league position left the club applying for re-election for a second
time. This time there was no lady luck and so the following season
returned to the Notts and Derbyshire League. No doubt the standard of
the playing area cost the Club dearly when it came to the vote. |