Why Arsenal tie is like ‘shotgun wedding’ for StagsMedia caption, ‘Arsenal are on fire’ – watch as Stags prepare to host Gunners in FA CupByAndrew Aloia, BBC Sport, East Midlands and Charlie Slater, BBC East Midlands TodayPublished1 hour agoThere will not be any heated seats waiting for Premier League leaders Arsenal at Mansfield Town on Saturday, but there will be the smell of a fresh lick of paint at the 10,000-capacity One Call Stadium.Mansfield’s first appearance in the fifth round of the FA Cup for more than half a century is also one of the highest-profile games in the club’s 129-year history.Chief executive Carolyn Radford freely admits that the League One club are much more used to the “unglamorous” side of football – the freezing winter treks to rivals both near and far flung in the lower reaches of the professional game.This is a side who have taken on the likes of Worksop and Kettering during the 15 years in which Carolyn and her husband John have backed Mansfield’s rise from non-league level to League One.”This is what football is, days like this which mean everything,” she tells BBC East Midlands Today.
“You have all those unglamorous matches, rainy Tuesday games away with a four- or five-hour drive back home, just to get up for work the next day.
“For supporters and for us it makes everything worthwhile, and shows that it doesn’t matter if expectations say you shouldn’t do something.”
