No Thanks: Alan Marriott

To put it very simply, this was robbery. I know he went to Rushden briefly before the Stags, but us losing Mazza to them hurt me. It was like seeing your childhood sweetheart go off with one of your schoolyard enemies, getting married and having good-looking kids. It hurt. A lot.

Mazza is a hero to me, emerging as the number one during a difficult period in our history and serving the club well, remaining loyal as the vultures swirled ahead and sticking with the club. He remained longer than anyone else from Keith’s heroes, even Paul Morgan. When we were a success, Alan Marriott was in goal. 

After Jackson arrived it became obvious that was coming to an end. He was rather unceremoniously dropped during that season before the loudmouth manager realised the keeper wasn’t the problem, but I firmly believe he couldn’t have anyone more popular than him at the club. He binned off Mazza at the earliest opportunity, one season short of a testimonial and just five appearances short of the 400 club.

Had he stayed, we’d be talking about a player with well over 600 appearances now. I firmly believe that. He could have kept goal for us right through to the end of his career, as proven by his 200+ appearances for the Stags. We fell into non-league, they overtook us and earned promotion. Part of me, a very small part, felt joy for him when Mansfield got Liverpool at our expense in the FA Cup.

The way he was treated by Jackson should be classed as a crime against the club. Mansfield benefitted from that, sadly.