Mansfield Town

Mansfield Town is a football (soccer) club from England.

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Mansfield Town Football Club are an English football (soccer) club who from the 2008-09 in English football season have competed in the Football Conference. Between 1931 and 2008 they competed in the Football League. Based in the former mining town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, Mansfield Town are nicknamed "The Stags". They play in their traditional colours of amber and blue.

The team's home ground is Field Mill, which holds 10,000 seated spectators. In 1995 Mansfield Town 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 Wesleyanism church on Bridge Street. The present name was adopted by Mansfield Town in the summer of 1910. This move angered local rivals Mansfield Mechanics, but the name change went ahead nonetheless.

By this time Mansfield had moved to their present home, Field Mill Which holds about 10,000 Football has been played at the ground since 1861 and is widely regarded as one of the oldest football stadiums in the world. After several attempts, Mansfield finally won election to the Football League in time for the 1931-32 in English football season.

Mansfield narrowly missed promotion to the Second Division in 1964-65 in English football season. The club's arguably most famous moment came in 1969, when they beat West Ham United F.C. 3–0 in the FA Cup. West Ham were standing sixth in the First Division and in their side were England national football team FIFA 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 F.C..

The most successful period in Mansfield's League history came during the 1970s, under manager Dave Smith (footballer born 1933). They claimed the Division Four title in 1974-75 in English football, 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 in English football. However, they were relegated at the end of the 1977-78 in English football season.

Mansfield won the Football League Trophy in 1987. It was their only game at Wembley Stadium (1924) to date and was played in front of 58,000 fans. After a 1–1 draw with Bristol City F.C., they won the cup 5–4 in the deciding penalty shootout (football). Keith Cassells was Man of the Match.

In the 1987-88 in English football Mansfield were narrowly defeated 2–1 at home in the FA Cup to eventual winners Wimbledon F.C.. Mansfield Town went into decline in the 1990s, being relegated back to the bottom division in 1990-91 in English football. In 1994-95 in English football, Mansfield made the playoffs, only to lose against arch-rivals Chesterfield F.C. to miss out on a place in the final.

Mansfield finished 3rd in the league in the 2001-02 in English football 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 in English football, Mansfield reached the playoff final, but lost on penalty shootout to Huddersfield Town F.C. at the Millennium Stadium.

Several key players, including leading scorer Liam Lawrence, left Mansfield Town before the 2004-05 in English football 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 Mansfield Town 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 in English football season, Carlton Palmer resigned in mid-September, giving in to intense pressure from the supporters. With Mansfield Town 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 Mansfield Town to a mid-table finish after an eight-match unbeaten spell in February and March 2006. The highlight of Mansfield Town's season was an FA Cup third round tie against Newcastle United F.C. at St. James' Park, a game they eventually lost 1–0. Peter Shirtliff parted company with Mansfield Town 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 Mansfield Town nine days later.

Mansfield had a poor 2007-08 in English football 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 F.C. with a 2–1 victory at the Withdean Stadium. This set up a home-tie against Premier League side Middlesbrough F.C. 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 F.C. drew with Stockport County F.C..

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

On 29 December 2008 former- defender David Holdsworth was appointed as the clubs new manager. Holdsworth had previously lead Northern Premier League Premier Division club to 6th in the league, ten points off first placed 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 Mansfield Town away from their relegation worries. He shored up the Mansfield defence and with the new signings of Alan Marriott, Scott Garner and Paul Mayo Mansfield Town smashed Mansfield Town record of consecutive home clean sheets with six in a row, against Crawley Town F.C., Rushden & Diamonds, York City F.C, Kettering Town F.C., Lewes F.C. 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 Mansfield Town's supporters were much more optimistic for the 2009/10 season after David Holdsworth fantastic start as manager.

Supporters

Richard Bacon, Alvin Stardust and Daley Thompson are famous supporters of Mansfield Town.

Ownership

The 2006-07 in English football 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 Mansfield Town 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 F.C. live on the BBC's Match of the Day programme.

In March 2008, it was reported that John Batchelor (racing), a bidder for Mansfield Town, planned to rename Mansfield Town to Harchester United F.C. after the fictional squad from the TV series Dream Team (TV series) to make Mansfield Town "more promotable" if his bid were a success. Fans and executives within Mansfield Town both stated that they would oppose the name change.

Following Mansfield Town's relegation in 2008, Colin Hancock, then the chairman of Glapwell F.C., 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 Mansfield Town from Keith Haslam for an undisclosed fee but they are renting the stadium from him.

Players

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 Baptiste. In the 2003–04 season Mansfield Town signed a deal with a local youth football league,

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

Player records

- Most league goals in total - 104 Harry Johnson (footballer born 1899) (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 (footballer)
- 2005–06 - Richard Barker
- 2006–07 - Alex Baptiste
- 2007–08 - Johnny Mullins
- 2008–09 - Gary Silk (footballer)

Honours

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

Local rivalries

- Chesterfield F.C.
- Notts County F.C.
- Lincoln City F.C.
- Doncaster Rovers F.C.
- Nottingham Forest F.C.

Altrincham Football Club, Boston United, Bradford Park Avenue, Burton Albion Football Club, Cambridge United, Crawley Town Football Club, Darwen, Eastbourne Borough Football Club, Ebbsfleet United Football Club, Exeter City, Forest Green Rovers Football Club, Glossop, Grays Athletic Football Club, Halifax Town, Histon Football Club, Kettering Town Football Club, Kidderminster Harriers, Lewes Football Club, Mansfield Town, Milton Keynes Dons, Northwich Victoria Football Club, Oxford United, Rushden and Diamonds, Salisbury City Football Club, Stevenage Borough Football Club, Torquay United, Weymouth Football Club, Woking Football Club, Wrexham, York City