It’s been over 97 years since we last faced Mansfield Town in a first-team match.
On that occasion, 44,493 fans streamed into Highbury to watch the Gunners take on the Stags in an FA Cup fourth round clash on January 26, 1929.
Herbert Chapman’s side had defeated Stoke City in the third round and were treading mid-table water in the First Division.
Midland League Mansfield, under the management of Jack Hickling, had knocked out Shirebrook (4-2) and Barrow (2-1) in rounds one and two, before surprising Second Division Wolverhampton Wanderers in the third round with a 1-0 win.
The Highbury match was fiercely contested. Photographs of Highbury show it as open to the elements on three sides, with the new East and West stands not completed until the early ‘30s.
A report in The Times noted that Mansfield’s ‘sturdy cup fighters’ made life extremely difficult for the Gunners, especially in the first half. One of the Stags’ early attacks, the reporter wrote, was ‘like a rugby forward rush.’
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Mansfield, whose weekly wage bill was just £38, even had a chance to take the lead after 33 minutes, but skipper Chris Staniforth blasted his penalty straight at Arsenal goalkeeper Dan Lewis.
Many of the ‘30s legends were already in the Arsenal starting lineup; Tom Parker and Eddie Hapgood at the back, Joe Hulme on the wing and David Jack, who became British football’s most expensive footballer at £10,647 after he joined from Bolton in 1928, up front.
The Gunners, losing FA Cup finalists in 1927, were still to win a major trophy, with Herbert Chapman giving opportunities to several stopgap options as he sought a consistently winning formula.
One of those was forward Harold Burston ‘Harry’ Peel, who’d been signed from Bradford Park Avenue for £1,750 in December 1928, a sizeable sum for a Third Division North player. It was Peel, with 52 first-team starts in three years, who finally broke the deadlock in the 81st minute against Mansfield, with a replay beckoning.
Jimmy Brain and Peel had previously hit the woodwork before a beautifully flighted Joe Hulme cross found Peel in the area, and he headed home, much to the relief of an increasingly nervous home crowd. With Mansfield, clad in their natty amber and blue kit, now flagging, David Jack dribbled his way through the tiring opposition defence and slammed home a second.
Buoyed by their cup run, Mansfield – playing at their tidy 20,000 capacity Field Mill ground – were admitted to the Football League in 1930, joining the Third Division South for the 1931-32 season before, curiously, switching to the Third Division North during the following season.
The Gunners lost to Aston Villa in the quarter-final in 1929, but went onto win the FA Cup – their first trophy – in the following season.
By then, with iconic duo Alex James and Cliff Bastin having been signed by Herbert Chapman, Harry Peel found his fist team opportunities limited, and returned to Bradford Park Avenue in December 1929.
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