Gentlemen verses players.

It’s a decent headline and maybe I’m struggling to make the narrative fit the bill. It’s to do with the way things have been lately. Mansfield the gritty former mining town. The designer suits can’t quite keep the eye from the dirt under the fingernails. It’s not that far away yet the accent seems from a different era. To me there’s a feel of frontier settlement colliding with the genteel cathedral, University City. Lincoln wasn’t always so and you certainly wouldn’t describe it as posh, not by any means.

You wouldn’t associate Lincoln City with money either whereas Mansfield Town positively drip with it. No club associated with Steve Evans has been exactly short of the readies whereas City have had to acquire their new found wealth the hard way. A cup run and the best gates in the league enable the Cowleys to keep up with the wealthier classes of league two and Stags are certainly among them.

The money’s been well spent too. Whatever you may think of Evans he laid the foundations of the squad they enjoy today. I think we’ll see plenty of that quality on Saturday. He’s a good talent spotter and a good manager too as evidenced by the job he’s doing at Peterborough.

So it’s a fascinating rumble in prospect. The tickets were sold two weeks ago. Stags manager David Flitcroft has been ruminating on the Imps supporters ability to sway refereeing descisions our way. A strong referee is needed to prevent the poor dear being swept away by the noise we create making it a one sided game. All I can say is he can’t have had us watched that much if he believes that. If anything several of the refs have displayed an I’ll show them attitude and we’ve lost out as much as we’ve gained.

To listen to many of the opposing managers you’d think we were the league ruffians and it remains to be seen how we judge Mansfield. Perhaps rough diamonds and quite what that makes us I really wouldn’t know.