Mansfield Town F.C.

Mansfield Town

Full name	Mansfield Town Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Stags, Yellows
Founded	1897 (as Mansfield Wesleyans)
Ground	Field Mill Mansfield (Capacity: 10,000)
Chairman	Andrew Perry
Manager	David Holdsworth
League	Conference National
2009–10	Conference National, 9th
Home colours Away colours

Mansfield Town Football Club are an English football club from the former mining town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. The are nicknamed The Stags and play in their traditional colours of amber and blue. The play in the Conference National, following their relegation from the The Football League in the 2007–08 season. They competed in The Football League from 1931 until their relegation.

The team's home ground is Field Mill, which holds 10,000 seated spectators. In 1995 the club considered building a new stadium in the town, but opted to re-develop their existing ground instead. The re-developed ground consists of three new stands, whilst an old, now condemned wooden stand completes the ground on the Bishop Street (East) side of the ground where there are plans to build a high-tech new one for TV programmes and cameras.

History

Mansfield Town was founded in 1897 under the name of Mansfield Wesleyans. Like many football clubs, their name derives from a local church, in this case the Wesleyan church on preston Road. The present name was adopted by the club in the summer of 1910. This move angered local rivals Rainworth Tigers, but the name change went ahead nonetheless.

By this time Mansfield had moved to their present home, Field Mill. After several attempts, Mansfield finally won election to the Football League in time for the 1931–32 season.

It was announced on the 6th March 2009 that the West Stand would be renamed as the Ian Greaves Stand, after the manager that took Mansfield Town to Wembley in 1987.

Mansfield narrowly missed promotion to the Second Division in 1964–65 season. The club's arguably most famous moment came in 1969, when they beat West Ham United 3–0 in the FA Cup. West Ham were standing sixth in the First Division and in their side were England's World Cup winners Bobby Moore, Martin Peters and Geoff Hurst along with youngsters Billy Bonds and Trevor Brooking. The game was postponed five times before it finally went ahead on Wednesday 26 February 1969 in front of 21,117 at Field Mill. Mansfield became only the fourth team in club history to knock out clubs from five different leagues in the same competition. They progressed to the quarter final stage where they eventually lost to Leicester City.

The most successful period in Mansfield's League history came during the 1970s, under manager Dave Smith. They claimed the Division Four title in 1974–75, with new signing Ray Clarke scoring 30 goals, and were then promoted to the second tier for the only time in their history in 1976–77. However, they were relegated at the end of the 1977–78 season.

Mansfield won the Freight Rover Trophy in 1987. It was their only game at Wembley Stadium to date and was played in front of 58,000 fans. After a 1–1 draw with Bristol City, they won the cup 5–4 in the deciding penalty shootout. Keith Cassells was Man of the Match.

In the 1987–88 season Mansfield were narrowly defeated 2–1 at home in the FA Cup to eventual winners Wimbledon. The club went into decline in the 1990s, being relegated back to the bottom division in 1990–91. In 1994–95, Mansfield made the playoffs, only to lose against arch-rivals Chesterfield despite taking the lead twice, and after having two men sent off, to miss out on a place in the final.

Mansfield finished 3rd in the league in the 2001–02 season, and gained promotion to Division Two. However, they finished 23rd the following season, and were relegated back to Division Three after only one season. In 2003–04, Mansfield reached the playoff final, but lost on penalties to Huddersfield Town at the Millennium Stadium.

Several key players, including leading scorer Liam Lawrence, left the club before the 2004–05 season. In November 2004, manager Keith Curle was suspended and later sacked over allegations of bullying a youth-team player. Carlton Palmer was appointed in his place, but many supporters were upset and angry at this appointment, and started negative chants about the manager during games. On a brighter note, striker Richard Barker signed for the club midway through the season, and quickly became a fan favourite with his gritty, determined, and never-say-die attitude. After a topsy-turvy season, the Stags finished in a low mid-table position.

After a poor start to the 2005–06 season, Carlton Palmer resigned in mid-September, giving in to intense pressure from the supporters. With the club propping up the whole of the football league, Palmer's assistant Peter Shirtliff was appointed manager, after impressing during his spell as caretaker manager. Shirtliff managed to guide the club to a mid-table finish after an eight-match unbeaten spell in February and March 2006. The highlight of the club's season was an FA Cup third round tie against Newcastle United at St. James' Park, a game they eventually lost 1–0. Peter Shirtliff parted company with the club on 19 December 2006 after a poor run of form. Paul Holland briefly took over as caretaker manager, before former manager Bill Dearden was re-hired by the club nine days later.

Mansfield had a poor 2007–08 season, sitting second bottom and in the relegation zone midway through the season, five points adrift of safety. Despite this, they had a FA Cup run, beating League One side Brighton & Hove Albion with a 2–1 victory at the Withdean Stadium. This set up a home-tie against Premiership side Middlesbrough in the fourth round, which they lost 2–0. Mansfield's poor form in league continued, however. Manager Billy Dearden was sacked, and replaced by Paul Holland.

Their 77 year stay in the Football League was ended on 29 April 2008 when Chester City drew with Stockport County.

After Holland was deposed, Billy McEwan took over, although his tenure only lasted five months and he was sacked in December 2008.^[1]

On 29 December 2008 former-Sheffield United defender David Holdsworth was appointed as the clubs new manager.^[2] Holdsworth had previously lead Northern Premier League Premier Division club Ilkeston Town to 6th in the league, ten points off first placed Hednesford Town with two games in hand.

David Holdsworth made a fantastic impact in his start at the Stag's winning the majority of his games, instantly guiding the club away from their relegation worries. He shored up the Mansfield defence and with the new signings of Alan Marriott, Scott Garner and Paul Mayo the team smashed the club record of consecutive home clean sheets with six in a row, against Crawley Town, Rushden & Diamonds, York City, Kettering Town, Lewes and they finally smashed the record with a 3-0 victory over Forest Green Rovers. Despite this fantastic home form Mansfield couldn't pick up enough points to muster enough a challenge for the play-offs but the club's supporters were much more optimistic for the 2009/10 season after Holdsworth's fantastic start as manager.

Supporters

Well known supporters are:

Richard Bacon, Alvin Stardust, Dave Vitty and Daley Thompson

Ownership

The 2006–07 season saw the creation of the 'SFFC (Stags Fans for Change)' an organisation aiming for the removal of then owner, Keith Haslam, from the club. The organisation undertook many projects over the year to get their message over in a different and non-aggressive way. This included hiring a plane to fly over the local derby match with Notts County towing a banner declaring that the club was for sale and calling for Haslam to leave. On 29 November 2007 Haslam rejected a bid from James Derry's consortium and the Mansfield fans pledged to have a TV protest against him on 2 December 2007 against Harrogate Railway Athletic live on the BBC's Match of the Day programme.

In March 2008, it was reported that John Batchelor, a bidder for Mansfield Town, planned to rename the club to Harchester United^[3] after the fictional squad from the TV series Dream Team to make the club "more promotable"^[4] if his bid were a success. Fans and executives within the club both stated that they would oppose the name change.^[5][6]

Following the club's relegation in 2008, Colin Hancock, then the chairman of Glapwell, emerged as the leading bidder as he agreed to purchase a controlling share of the Stags, the Field Mill, and some land surrounding the stadium from Haslam. However, three business men who are also Mansfield Town fans, Andrew Perry, Andrew Saunders & Steve Middleton, bought the club from Keith Haslam for an undisclosed fee but they are renting the stadium from him.^[7]

Players

As of 22 July 2010.^[8]

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Alan Marriott 4 MF Gary Mills 7 FW Louis Briscoe 8 MF Matt Somner 9 FW Rob Duffy 14 MF Steven Istead 16 DF Gary Silk 21 DF Tom Naylor 22 DF Ben Turner 23 MF Conor Higginson 26 MF Kyle Nix

No. Position Player 33 GK Neil Collett — DF Steve Foster — FW Lee Gregory — FW Keigan Parker — DF Mark Preece — DF Kevin Sandwith — MF Adam Smith — DF Chris Smith — DF Paul Stonehouse — MF Tyrone Thompson

Notable players

The Mansfield Town youth system was very successful between 1998 and 2005, producing players such as Liam Lawrence, Craig Disley, Lee Williamson, Bobby Hassell and Alex John Baptiste. In the 2003–04 season the club signed a deal with a local youth football league, MTYFL, to contribute to football in the community and also to find future stars.

Established football league players such as Gordon Hodgson, Chris Greenacre, Paul Holland, Kevin Horlock, Colin Calderwood, Richard Barker,Sandy Pate,Rod Arnold,Peter Morris, Bob Curtis (footballer), , Nigel Bennett, Luther Blissett and Keith Cassells have played for Mansfield over the course of their history.

Player records

• Most league goals in total - 104 Harry Johnson (1931–36)
• Most league appearances - 440 Rod Arnold (1970–83)

SSA (Stags Supporters Association) player of the season award

• 2001–02 - Bobby Hassell
• 2002–03 - Liam Lawrence
• 2003–04 - Rhys Day
• 2004–05 - Alex Neil
• 2005–06 - Richard Barker
• 2006–07 - Alex Baptiste
• 2007–08 - John Mullins
• 2008–09 - Gary Silk
• 2009–10 - Alan Marriott

Honours

• Division Four Champions, 1974–75.
• Division Three Champions, 1976-1977.
• Football League Trophy Winners, 1986-87.

Local rivalries

• Chesterfield
• Notts County (Nottinghamshire Derby)
• Lincoln City
• Doncaster Rovers
• Nottingham Forest

References

External links

• Mansfield Town F.C. on BBC Sport: Club News – Recent results – Upcoming fixtures – Club stats
• Mansfield Town Official Website
• Official Website of the Stags Supporters Association
• Official Website Of Mansfield Town Ladies FC