Hollett’s memories of magical Mansfield Town season

The sixties were in full swing and English football was about to enter a golden, World Cup-winning era, yet 32 years after Mansfield Town’s election to the Football League for the 1931-32 season, they had still to taste a single promotion. All that, however, was about to change.

The 1962-63 campaign was to be an unforgettable one for the Stags as they finally claimed a place in the old Division Three - and Ivan Hollett remembers that brilliant season as if it were yesterday.

There was no doubting the team’s route to success... goals, and lots of them.

While the team conceded 69, they scored an incredible 108 times during the 46-game Division Four season - the first time they had netted 100 goals in a professional season.

Hollett, who had first joined the club in 1959, played his part with nine in 19 league games and 15 in 25 in all competitions.

But it was the prowess of Ken Wagstaff and Roy Chapman that really powered Mansfield to glory, as they both scored 41 each in all - 34 and 30 respectively in the league.

It meant that despite just one player joining in the summer of 1962, Colin Askey from Port Vale, the emergence of Wagstaff and Peter Morris through the youth team ensured the Stags were well-equipped to challenge at the top end of the table.

“Ken and Roy have got to be in with a shout of being Mansfield’s best ever strike partnership, haven’t they?” said Hollett. “I thought of myself as being a decent striker, but they were sensational.

“The two wingers who supplied us Colin Askey and Jimmy Weir, a Scot, were very good too and almost all of us were six footers. Even the ones who weren’t were still good in the air.

“They were the days of the W-M formation when teams used to get lots of players in the box, not like now when a lot of teams play with only one up front. Roy and myself were inside forwards and Waggy was the centre forward.

“When the wingers got the ball and tried to beat the full-back, it was our job to make sure we were in the box.”

Of their first 10 games, seven were won, three drawn, and just one ended in defeat so that by the end of September, Mansfield had established themselves as firm title contenders.

Despite a sticky period in December, the Stags were well placed going into the turn of the year, but their momentum was hit by one of the biggest freezes on record.

Incredibly, the team did not play between 22nd December and 9th March because of sub-zero temperatures and the weather played havoc with the Football League and FA Cup programme.

Almost 500 games were postponed, with the FA Cup third round tie between Lincoln and Coventry was postponed 15 times!

Hollett said: “It was madness to not play for that long, but the snow was so deep and had set in.

“We used to come in for training where the practice pitch was next to the side of the ground and try to do some work, but it was a farce.

“Everyone did their running and then got back in their cars and went home. There was nothing else we could do.

“Gradually it did start to thaw and eventually we managed to get a practice game in against Chesterfield and we went and beat them 10-0. I think they were frightened to death of us.”

If the League season was proving memorable, Mansfield’s participation in the FA Cup that season was no less eventful.

The early rounds saw Mansfield romp to a record-equalling high victory of 9-2 against Hounslow - but only after the part-timers had held the Stags to a 3-3 draw in London.

And against Crystal Palace, Mansfield had no less than 10 players booked by the referee, which was a Football League record.

The reason? The Eagles were awarded a penalty in the closing stages that incensed the Stags players and, as a result, every player except goalkeeper Colin Treharne lined up to sarcastically applaud the official.

Suitably stung by the 2-2 draw, the Stags also racked up the goals in that replay too, winning 7-2.

“I think it’s fair to say we were revved up for that replay after what we saw was an injustice,” said Hollett. “We weren’t going to lose that one.”

“I got five goals in one extended weekend, scoring two at Hounslow on the Saturday in a 3-3 draw and then a hat-trick in the replay. Waggy also got a hat-trick too.

“They were a team of amateurs and we took it far too easily in the first game but then did what we should have done first time in the replay.

“We eventually played First Division Ipswich and lost 3-2 in the third round, but I think we would have beaten them on a better pitch.”

Check back tomorrow for part two of the Chad’s interview, which features the infamous betting scandal and a promotion nail-biter.