Mansfield Town F.C.
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Mansfield Town Football Club is an English football club who currently play in League Two of the Football League. Based in the former mining town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, the club are nicknamed "The Stags". They play in their traditional colours of amber and blue. The team is currently without a manager, following the departure of Bill Dearden. He took over on 28 December 2006, with former Stags hero Paul Holland as his assistant, following Peter Shirtliff's dismissal. Dearden left by mutual consent on 8 March 2008.[1] The club is fierce rivals with neighbouring Chesterfield. The rivalry between the two is considered by some to be amongst the fiercest in the lower leagues. Stags also enjoy rivalries with Notts County, Lincoln City and Doncaster Rovers. The fans of the club are also considered the most pessimistic in the Football League. 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 an high-tech new one for TV programmes and cameras. The team are currently sponsored by local company A.Sutton Pipelines Ltd.
HistoryMansfield Town was founded in 1897 under the name of Mansfield Wesleyans. Like many football clubs, Stags can trace their origins to a local church, in this case the Wesleyan church on Bridge Street. The present name was adopted by the club in the summer of 1910. This move angered local rivals Mansfield Mechanics, but the name change went ahead nonetheless. By this time Stags had moved to their present home, Field Mill. 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, Stags finally won election to the Football League in time for the 1931-32 season. 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, a team containing many of England's World Cup heroes, 3-0 in the FA Cup. West Ham United were standing sixth in the First Division and in their side: 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, on what turned out to be one of the greatest nights in the club’s history. In front of 21,117 at Field Mill, the Stags won 3-0 and became only the fourth team in club history to knock out clubs from five different leagues in the same competition. The Stags then progressed to the quarter final stage where they eventually lost to Leicester City. The most successful period in Stags' League history came during the 1970s, when Mansfield claimed the Division Four title in 1974-75, and was then promoted to the second tier for the only time in their history in 1976-77. However, the Stags were relegated at the end of the 1977-78 season. Notable players included Gordon Hodgson. Stags captured the Freight Rover Trophy in 1987. It was Stags' only game at Wembley Stadium to date and was played in front of 58,000 fans. After a 1-1 draw with Bristol City, Stags won the cup 5-4 in the deciding penalty shootout. Keith Cassells was Man of the Match. 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 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, Stags attempted to regain promotion, and reached the playoff final, but lost on penalties to Huddersfield at the Millennium Stadium. The same 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. The 2004-05 season was a turbulent one. Several key players, including leading scorer Liam Lawrence, left the club that summer. In November that year, manager Keith Curle was suspended and later sacked over allegations of bullying a youth-team player. Carlton Palmer took charge of first-team affairs, 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 without doubt the trip up to Newcastle United's St. James' Park, for the FA Cup third round. Newcastle legend Alan Shearer scored the only goal with ten minutes to play. This goal would see him equal the 200-goal record set by Jackie Milburn. However, many fans believe that had captain Richard Barker been 100% fit and striker Simon Brown not been injured, that the Stags might have won this game. 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. The 2006-07 season also 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 the November 29, 2007 Keith Haslam rejected a bid from James Derry's consortium and the Mansfield fans pledged to have a TV protest against Haslam on the December 2, 2007 against Harrogate Railway live on the BBC's Match of the Day programme. The Stags have had a poor season in League Two this season, sitting second bottom and in the relegation zone midway through the season, five points adrift of safety. Despite this, the yellows have had a noticeable FA Cup run, with the most notable result coming at League One side Brighton & Hove Albion with a 2-1 victory at the Withdean Stadium. This has set up a glamarous home-tie against Premiership side Middlesbrough in the fourth round of the Cup. SuccessMansfield Town have only once won what now is called League Two in 1975. Before the start of the season, Stags' boss Dave Smith made two significant signings by signing Ray Clarke and Gordon Hodgeson. Clarke proved to be an instant hit with the Mansfield faithful after finishing the season on 30 goals. Two years on and Mansfield won League One which meant that they won promotion to the second tier of English football but, after a season to remember, the Stags then finished 21st and were relegated. In January 2008 Mansfield Town reached the 4th Round of the FA Cup where they played Middlesbrough at Field Mill in which they lost 2-0, this is the furthest the Stags have got in the competition since the 1987-88 season where they were narrowly defeated 2-1 at home to eventual cup winners Wimbledon. 2007-2008 season
The 07/08 season started off really tough for Mansfield with just 4 points in their opening 10 games, but after a 1-1 draw with Barnet Mansfield then beat local rivals Notts County followed by draw at Shrewsbury and then a 5-0 whitewash over Maccesfield Town. On Boxing Day mansfield got a shock home win against promotion chasing Peterbrough. After a 1-0 deafeat on the opening day of 2008 and a 4-0 deafeat against Wycombe Mansfield were looking more likley to be in the drop zone come may but a first away win for almost a year at Chester put the Stags in a positive mood. This was followed by deafeat at home to Darlington which put another dent in Mansfield's path. Just a week later the BBC cameras were in Mansfield to screen the 4th round fa cup clash with Premership giants Middlesbrough. The Stags lost 2-0 in a brave attempt to cause a giant killing. The feelgood factor carried on in Mansfield after top goalscorer Michael Boulding scored in the 93rd minute at Sincil Bank to get the Stags a much-needed 3 points. A great win was followed by a hard working deafeat this time to the hands of Brentford. During this game Mansfield new boy Jefferson Louis made his debut scoring within 10 minutes of his first game. Just a week later Mansfield went into a game with Wycombe botton of league two recording there third away win of the in a row after Jefferson Louis scored in the 90th Minuite to give the Stags 3 points and lift them out of the League two drop zone. Just four days later Mansfield again slipped up after Morecombe completed the double over the stags with a 2-1 win at field mill but the following game Mansfield became the second side to win at Darlington this season the only othere team being leaders MK dons.After a few good results mansfield town sliped to a 3-1 deafeat againt chester city on the 23rd of March and chester had not won since 22nd december and 4 days later mansfield ended 6 straight home deafeats with a dissapointing 1-1 draw.The following saturday Mansfield played thier most important game of the season so far against wrexham and another 1-1 draw after mansfield were leading for the 3rd game in a row and all week after that famous fotballing clichy came up "Every game is a cup final" Current squad
Carlton Palmer EraAfter Keith Curle's unexpected dismissal ex-chairman Keith Haslam appointed friend Palmer as his succssesor this angered many supporters because in his only previous managerial role took Stockport County from the 2nd tier of English football down to the 4th. He sold many players and the majority of the players sold were involved in promotion races with their new clubs and this angered Mansfield fans. Carlton Palmer eventually resigned after a 2-0 deafeat at Rochdale and he said "I dont need abuse from the fans". ETC Feud with Keith HaslamMansfield Town have a long lasting feud with Owner Keith Haslam. The supporters say he took over £1 million of personal loans out of the club. For many years now Mansfield fans have protested against the owner by Banners,Chants and boycotting home games. Youth SystemMansfield Youth system was very successful during 1998 and 2005 players such as Liam Lawrence, Craig Disley, Lee Williamson, Bobby Hassell and Alex John Baptiste had came from mansfield youth. Liam Lawrence - Liam left Mansfield for Sunderland in the promotion season and was playing Premiership football for Sunderland the following year. He is now at Stoke City. Craig Disley - Very good young talent now playing for Bristol Rovers. Lee Williamson - Left Mansfield for Northampton and has since moved to Rotherham but now plays Championship football with Watford. Alex John Baptiste - At just 21 Bap has made over 150 appearances for the Stags and has a promising future ahead of him.In the summer of 2007 Baptiste attracted interest from Crewe but instead signed a four year contract with Mansfield. Bobby Hassell - Hassell left the Stags to join Barnsley and in his first season won the play-offs in league 1. Player Records
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