Ingham: York City ready for war at Mansfield (From York Press)

Ingham: York City ready for war at Mansfield

12:00pm Friday 4th May 2012 in Sport By Steve Carroll , Sports reporter

MICHAEL INGHAM is expecting to go to “war” when York City travel to Mansfield Town for the vital play-off semi-final second leg on Monday.

The Minstermen goalkeeper is expecting a hostile atmosphere at Field Mill and more physical attention, along with the long-ball and long-throw bombardment which marked Wednesday’s first-leg 1-1 draw at Bootham Crescent.

Ingham, who played following a pain-killing injection on the ankle injury which has caused him to miss the last three games of the Blue Square Bet Premier regular season, said he had been booted in the chest, had coins thrown at him and received an elbow from Stags’ striker Matt Green, later sent off for two yellow cards, in a tempestuous encounter.

But as City look to book a second trip to Wembley at Mansfield, the 31-year-old, who also received considerable abuse on Twitter from some away supporters in the aftermath of the first leg, has backed his team-mates to get the job done.

“There have been tests of character and questions asked of the lads all season,” Ingham said. “To be fair, the lads have answered every single one of them. I have no worries at all about going to Mansfield.

“It is going to be loud, it is going to be very intimidating, it’s probably going to be another war. But the lads will roll their sleeves up and, hopefully, we will get a victory and roll on to Wembley.”

He added: “It was a tough game and a bit of a war out there at times.

“I have gone from getting a boot in the chest, to getting coins thrown at me, to getting an elbow off Matt Green which the linesman did not see.

“We were being bombarded by long throws and crosses into the box, but we have probably played the better stuff and are unlucky not to come away with a victory.”

Ingham stressed the need to deal with the long-throw threat of Exodus Geohaghon, whose flat bullet in the first half led to Ross Dyer’s 26th-minute goal for Mansfield, but reckons the Minstermen will handle the problem better in the return leg.

“We just didn’t deal with the one they scored from – the rest we did,” he said.

“There were no excuses and we probably will have to watch where we kick the ball out on Monday because he seems to take them from everywhere.

“He’s a bit like Rory Delap. He’s got the flat one and the loopy one. We will hopefully deal with that a bit better on Monday.”

On the situation with his injury, Ingham continued: “It was manageable, but it is very sore.

“I had to take a pain-killing jab 20 minutes before kick-off and a lot of drugs. But I got through it.

“It’s a lot of severe bone bruising so I will just have to manage it until the end of the season and rest it over the summer.

“In our minds, we have got another three games to go.

“We go to Mansfield on Monday and we want to play in the play-off final and get promoted.

“That was the aim from July 1 as the gaffer keeps saying and the players are the same.

“The Lutons and the Grimsbys and the Braintrees and the Cambridges – we have always answered the questions and we have probably played better football away from home.

“We go to Mansfield on Monday and don’t fear anybody.”

City will be buoyed at Mansfield by more than 1,500 travelling supporters after the Club yesterday sold out their allocation for the all-ticket match (kick off 2pm).