VIDEO: STAGS' GOLDEN GOALS '” Dave Syrett's Mansfield Town hat-trick strike in a Spurs mudbath

It is something that football fans of all clubs argue about. What is the the best, most memorable or favourite goal scored by your heroes?
Dave Syrett nets for the Stags in the opening game of their only season in the second tier.Dave Syrett nets for the Stags in the opening game of their only season in the second tier.
Dave Syrett nets for the Stags in the opening game of their only season in the second tier.

Each week we are taking a look at some of the best to hit the net for Mansfield Town over the past decades. If you have a goal you would like us to feature, email [email protected] with brief details and your memories of the strike and we will try to include in a future article.

Our latest golden goal was nominated on fans’ website Stagsnet by Beano, among others.

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It had poured with rain all day in Mansfield, back on 25th March 1978 — and then it started raining goals as the Stags, in the old Division Two (their only season in the second tier of English football) played out a six-goal thriller with the mighty Spurs.

And that wet weather had a major part to play in the goal I remember best from the six at Field Mill that day. In fact, you could argue the weather had a part to play in all the goals on a pitch that would today have been declared unplayable.

More than 12,000 fans were packed into the ground as the rain teemed down and large puddles formed on the pitch.

It was arguably the biggest match of the season for the fans as the big names of Spurs came to town.

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But few gave them a chance, despite a creditable Christmas draw in the reverse fixture thanks to a Kevin Bird goal.

For by March the Stags were staring relegation in the face, not helped by a series of missed penalties including in that 1-1 draw at White Hart Lane.

But on 25th Match they turned the form book upside down to give the promotion favourites — full of household names like Steve Perryman, Peter Taylor, Barry Daines and a young Glenn Hoddle — a real fright.

On a mudbath of a pitch and in driving rain, the Stags had twice lead through Dave Syrett goals and had their customary penalty miss before, with five minutes remaining, the striker claimed this golden goal.

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The usually immaculate Perryman made a mess of a pass just inside the Stags’ half. Perhaps the quagmire pitch was to blame, but Gordon Hodgson quickly sent the loose pass up and over the Spurs defence.

As Syrett charged forwards Spurs keeper Danies rushed off his line and completely miskicked his hurried clearance as the ball bobbled on the uneven surface.

Stags defender Kevin Bird recalls the 3-3 draw with SpursWatch match highlights, including Syrett’s hat-trickSyrett, who bizarrely had not scored in the previous three months, ran through and guided the ball into an empty net.

He wheeled away in a now well-remembered celebration to mark his glorious hat-trick, soaked to the skin.

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Cue wild celebrations too on the terraces as the Stags could sense a real scalp and a victory to remember.

Sadly, Hoddle curled an undeserved equaliser for the London side from a late free kick, but it could not take away from the memory of Syrett’s golden goal. Sadly, too, the Stags were relegated after their moment in the Second Division spotlight, which had begun with an opening day victory over Stoke City when Syrett had the honour of scoring the Stags’ first ever goal in the Second Division.