COUNTY DOWN

Clough's Stags ruin party for world's oldest club who vow to bounce back for their 5,000 League game

- MIKE WALTERS

NOTTS COUNTY                                              1
Crowley 3

MANSFIELD TOWN                                          4
Reed 24, Cargill 70, Flint 74, Akins 81 

MIKE WALTERS HANGOVERS from a Stag party are two-a-penny in Nottingham but the world's oldest League club need the plink-plink-fizz to work its magic promptly.

Notts County head for their 5,000th League game at Gillingham on Saturday after a sobering Mansfield rout.

But midfielder Matt Palmer (right) exhorted: "Let's put it right and make sure we can celebrate on an historic day." Only Preston, Burnley, Wolves, Derby, Bolton, West Brom and Blackburn reached the impressive milestone faster.

And County would have been first over the line had they not dipped out of the mainstream to inspect the non-League circuit four years ago.