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I'm after somewhere that has match reports from the late 90s. I am getting one of these Ceefax mugs with the 4-2 win over Mansfield Town on it (a match close to my heart). I know Johnny Williams and Kevin Nugent both scored a brace, but want the times and the opposition scorers. Googled a fair bit and can't get anything beyond the scoreline and attendance.
Help gratefully received!
Fatty
Ah splendid, many thanks. Where did you get this?Originally Posted by Michael Morris
http://web.archive.org/web/200103291...IELDh98-99.htm
Report by NigelBlues.
What a day! Easily the best match at Ninian since...I really can't remember.
The crowd and atmosphere was unbelievable. Credit to Mansfield for coming to play, the most worthy opponents City have faced all season, but I cannot
praise The Bluebirds highly enough.Not the best display of recent weeks but if ever a team proved their bottleand credentials to be promoted and, please, win this division, it was Citytoday.
Mansfield were not as good as Cardiff (and deserved to lose for the crappiest
away support imaginable) but put City to the sword. City rose to the
challenge to win the biggest and hardest test that they have had. It is
really not possible to convey the atmosphere in these notes. You would have
been proud a be a Bluebird.
CARDIFF CITY (1) 4 MANSFIELD (0) 2
Williams 12, 46 Harper 53
Nugent 60, 80 Christie 58
Crowd 9,013 (magic, magic, magic)
Mansfield Away Support 150 (Disgrace - Win and they would have gone top and
that's all they could bring)
Pitch: Perfect (as always)
Jason Fowler was missing again (the man has more injuries than Cardiff Royal
Infirmary!) so natural replacement Danny Hill was called up. Otherwise this
was the same City line-up who have won 4 succesive league and cup matches.
Perhaps the only other mention was an attacking subs bench including new
signing Andy Legg and Robbie Earnshaw.
The Bob Bank didn't seem to have a spare seat, three blocks of the Grandstand
were full and the Canton looked near capacity. Only the Grange away end
lacked Mansfield fans and atmosphere (did they sing anything this afternoon?).
Their team deserved better.
City walked onto the pitch to an enormous roar, the like of which had not
been heard at Ninian in a long while. For a change, it was the opposition who
had the better of the opening exchanges and possibly the first half but the
only goal belonged to City. The first chance came in the 1st minute when
Mansfield's leading scorer, Peacock (who flicks his locks more than
Hallworth), shot into the side netting.
Two players shone almost immediately. The Mansfield no 9, Christie, who only
played late on due to a boil on the bum of their regular striker and Danny
Hill, whose passing, vision and general play made him my personal City man of
the match (the sponsors gave it to John Williams who played out of his skin
yet again).
City fought but Mansfield continued to press harder. The Canton Stand were
twitchy and cheering any City touches until the TOP OF THE LEAGUE side took
the lead on 12 minutes.
Craig Middleton won possession in central midfield and moved the ball wide to
Danny Hill attacking towards the Grange End. After controlling the ball and
beating his marker, Hill played a beautiful pass/cross across the penalty area
to John Williams. Rushing in, Williams made no mistake and the City faithful
burst into "ONE-NIL TO THE CHAMPIONS". The chanting never stopped.
Still, Mansfield continued to have more posession and pressure but created
few real openings. Christie, for all his nice touches, was a striker playing
wide so no threat but he then moved inside. He had Mansfield's best chance
when he charged through and was one on one with Hallworth. Jon Hallworth
showed all his experience and composure as his positioning and covering of all
angles was faultless leaving Christie's effort hit him and bounce away.
Superb! The crowd approved with Jon Hallworth chants and rightly so.
Chances came at both ends as Williams had an effort saved and Hallworth kept
out weak Christie efforts. City marched off to triumphant applause for a lead
hard-earned and harder to hold onto.
H/T CITY 1 MANSFIELD 0
First half nerves were soon forgotten as John Williams hit City into a 2 goal
lead within 30 seconds of the re-start. Following a quick move, a superb
Kevin Nugent flick put Williams clear. Charging into the area and turning his
marker inside out twice, Williams 1st shot was well saved but the rebound fell
kindly and he slotted the ball into an empty net. Ninian Park erupted. It
was Willo's 10th goal in 9 matches. Chants of We Are Top Of The League boomed louder than Concorde.
This seemed to set City up for complete destruction of Mansfield and, for the
next few minutes, the visitors were torn apart. The best effort was a Nugent
chip from 25 yards which left Mansfield's keeper stranded but went inches
wide.
Then disaster. Mansfield scored twice in 5 minutes to level the game. On 53
minutes, that man Christie easily won the ball, turned in the area and played
the ball back to Harper who hit a great shot high into City's net from 15
yards. It was the 1st league goal City had conceded in 4 matches and only the
2nd league game City had conceded a goal in the past 9 matches.
It was 2-2 on 58 minutes as Mansfield won a corner after appealing for a
penalty that was clearly ball to hand. The corner to the far post was
innocuous and so was the resulting Christie far post header. A Christmas
miracle unfortunately came early. Somehow it caught Jon Hallworth off his line and looped in the centre of the goal for the softest goal City had conceded in ages. It must be regarded as a Hallworth error.
City's three wise men at the back - Young, Mitchell and Ford - weren't
'stable'. They were no longer gold, Frank was incensed and everyone said
mmmmmmyrh! Crap joke, sorry!
Thoughts of "here we go again" arose as City lost their way but credit to the
fans for getting behind the team and City regained the lead just 2 minutes
later. A cross field ball was superbly flicked on by Nugent to find Wayne
O'Sullivan wide. His dancing feet got into action as he bemused a Mansfield
defender and then delivered a beautiful far post cross. It was met expertly
by Kevin Nugent who cushioned a perfect header back in the direction from where it came and into the corner of the net.
I was heading to the toilets at this moment so I fear television pictures may
show me going mental running along the walkway at the front of the Canton
Stand on my own in celebration. If it does, I'm sorry but I'm sure you will
understand. It was the biggest roar I had heard in ages as the game more more
like a cup match than league game.
A minute later, it could have been 4-2 . Craig Middleton was clean through
and seemingly clipped by Mansfield's keeper. In my opinion, he was not. We
have to accept that you really cannot 'Dink and Dive At Christmas'! OK, no
more crap Xmas jokes! He was booked for play-acting.
City continued to press but Williams, always dangerous, was understandably
looking tired looking tired and Mansfield were still a threat. It needed a
killer fourth goal which arrived on 80 minutes. Mark Delaney (does he ever
get tackled/fouled without somersaulting 10 feet into the air?) after good
work produced a class centre that was met by another perfect Nugent header
planted high into the netfrom 8 yards. It was City's 20th goal in 8 games -
who said we have a goalscoring problem?
I have to admit I NEARLY did a Gazza and had a tear in relief/celebration.
For me, this fightback shows that City will get promoted. I know there's half
a season to go and a lot can go wrong but we showed everything that a good
side had to prove. This was easily City's toughest test for weeks but our
class, strength and authority shone won the day. We have what it takes.
The next 10 minutes were a blur but the noise at the final whistle rocked
Ninian. Virtually every fan stayed until the last kick and then stood,
cheered and applauded for a couple of minutes until the last City player
disappeared down the tunnel. Your homework question is, "When was the last
time City were top of the table at Christmas?". I cannnot recall it.
Wishing every City fan a Blue Christmas. Don't forget to photograph teletext
league tables on Christmas Day and let's see a full house for Shrewsbury on
Boxing Day.
Report by Carlsson
The best match of the year by far. A 9013 attendance brought back memories
of the 92/93 season - people turning up late could not find seats on the Bob
bank and the atmosphere was fantastic.
1st half I thought we were very fortunate to go in 1-0 up and then be 2-0 up
early second half. I was pretty impressed with Mansfield 1st half - they
created about 5/6 scoring chances first half, the best bringing another
(last years) Schmichal? type save - standing up late when 1 on 1 - from the
'world class' Hallworth. Our goal in the first half was the only real
chance I can think of us having - after some great work by Hill (replacing
Fowler) battling and then showing skill to make space on the left wing to
cross for Williams who with a suspicion of handball tucked it in the net.
Half time Mansfield made a substitution in defence and this possibly caused
the mix-up that left Williams free with only the keeper to beat - a
reasonable shot was saved but the rebound was tucked in with aplomb (just
let the cliches flow, man). We all thought it was over but you have to
credit Mansfield for coming back with two good goals, the second being one
of those anoying looping headers which you know is going in but you can't do
anything about it. Last years side would have crumbled at this point but
this a different side and at 2-2 I still felt sure we were going to win.
Why do players look for penalties when there is a good chance of scoring
because from where I was sitting both Nugent and Middletons turned-down
penalty appeals were cases of this. When looking at the tv footage
tomorrow, possibly 1 or both will prove to be penalties but the ref is
always going to give the defender the benefit of the doubt when theatrical
dives are involved. Our third brought a Bob Bank celebration you have to go
back a couple of years to match (apart from the odd FA cup game) and came
from a Bellamy-style (but closer to goal) pin-point header from the 'lethal'
Nugent. Up to that point I was dissapointed with Nugget - although he was
holding the ball up and distributing to midfield as well as ever, I feel he
now needs to show more ambition and vary his play a bit by trying to turn
defenders and actually end up facing the goal with the ball at his feet.
He'd still make my side though. Another Nugent header killed the game off
some minutes later ( the second half went in a bit of a whirl, to be honest).
Report from AOL.
ohn Williams and Kevin Nugent both struck twice as Cardiff consolidated their
lead at the top of Division Three with a 4-2 win over Mansfield.
Williams put Cardiff ahead when he forced home a Danny Hill cross in the 12th
minute and added his second in the 46th minute after good work by Nugent.
But Mansfield hit back strongly and grabbed two goals in five minutes to get
back on level terms.
Steve Harper got the first on 53 minutes and Iyseden Christie made it all
square with a looping header from a Darrel Clarke corner.
Nugent restored Cardiff's lead three minutes later when he headed home a Wayne O'Sullivan cross and he made the game safe for the Bluebirds nine minutes from time with another header, this time from a Mark Delaney centre.
It left Mansfield regretting a string of missed chances during a spell in the
first half when the Cardiff defence looked rocky and unsure of itself.
Report from the Sporting Life.
BLUEBIRDS FLY CLEAR OF TITLE PACK
John Williams and Kevin Nugent scored two goals each to stretch Cardiff's lead at the top of the Third Division to four points.
Williams scored his 10th and 11th goals of the season to set the Bluebirds on their way but strikes from Mansfield pair Steve Harper and Iyseden Christie in a five minute spell after half-time levelled for the third-placed Stags.
But Nugent hit back in the 61st minute, before sealing the points nine minutes from time in the 4-2 win.
soccerbase.com
And the reports page is from my website written at the time (courtesy of http://web.archive.org/)
NigelBlues report is exactly how I remembered that afternoon, the atmosphere was banging in there. Probably one of my favourite City memories. We'd been really crap for a few years before that, and it was the tail end of that promotion season I started going away. Good times!
i had a season ticket / pass for the Directors Box that season. One of my favourites and with one of the best kits we ever had.
Richard-Carpenter.jpg
i couldn't remember the game until I read the start of the report. It was a great game, one of the best I've ever seen. Mansfield were brilliant that day too.
I love how everyone was getting very excited about a crowd of 9013. It's easy to forget where we've come from.
Didn't Williams and Nugent play for Swansea as well?
And wasn't John Williams a postman before he became a footballer?
Nugent went to Swansea after Cardiff. I think he played for Orient as well. John Williams was the flying postman, did well at Coventry City. It was a really good team that one.
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