Port Vale 1 Mansfield Town 4

Football League Division III

Easter Saturday 9 April 1977

(view the video footage of the game on the Vintage Video page)

Stags thump Port Vale on their way to glory in 1977  

On Easter Saturday 9th April 1977, Stags visited Port Vale with 10 games of the season remaining and aiming for promotion from Division III for the first time in their history. Stags were third behind Brighton and Rotherham, and a thumping 4-1 victory at Vale Park lifted them into second place.   Kevin Randall put Stags in front in the 23rd minute. Billy McEwan won the ball in air, heading it towards Ernie Moss, who laid it off to Johnny Miller. Miller slid a lovely pass through to Randall who scored with a left foot shot into bottom right hand corner of net. But on 27 minutes Vale were level when Dave Harris equalised from a corner. Stags were back in front on 52 minutes when Kevin Bird scored with his left foot from a Barry Foster cross which was headed on by Randall. Bird scored again on 79 minutes with a stunning left foot effort after Colin Foster had flicked on a cross from Miller. Foster turned it into a rout on 86 minutes with a great header from a Miller corner. Stags had plenty of other heroes on the day with defender Ian Wood man of the match.  

In an exciting end to the season, Stags ended up as Division III champions, with Brighton and Crystal Palace also promoted.  

Compiled by Martin Shaw and Darren Shaw