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Mansfield Town F.C.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article is missing citations or needs footnotes. Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies.(October 2007) |
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| Full name | Mansfield Town Football Club | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nickname(s) | Stags, Yellows | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Founded | 1897 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ground | Field Mill Mansfield (Capacity 10000) |
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| Chairman | James Derry | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Manager |  Billy Dearden |
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| League | League Two | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2006–07 | League Two, 17th | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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's current manager is Bill Dearden, with former Stags hero Paul Holland as his assistant. Dearden took over on 28 December 2006 following Peter Shirtliff's dismissal.
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.
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Mansfield 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.
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.
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 29th of November 2007 Keith haslam rejected a bid from Jmaes derrys consortium and the mansfield fans pledged to have a tv protest against Haslam on the 2nd of December against harrogate railway live on bbc ones match of the day.
Mansfield 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.
- As of 30 November 2007.
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- Most league goals in a season - 55 Ted Harston (1936-37)
- Most league goals in total - 104 Harry Johnson (1931-36)
- Most league appearances - 440 Rod Arnold (1970-83}
- Mansfield Town F.C. on BBC Sport: Club News - Recent results - Upcoming fixtures - Club stats
- History of football kit
- Mansfield Town Official Website
- Official Website of the Stags Supporters Association
- Stags Fans For Change (SFFC), a protest group set up in early 2007, campaigning for an end to Keith Haslam's ownership of the football club
| Preceded by Bristol City |
Football League Trophy Winners 1986-87 |
Succeeded by Wolverhampton Wanderers |
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Accrington Stanley | Barnet | Bradford City | Brentford | Bury | Chester City | Chesterfield | Dagenham & Redbridge | Darlington | Grimsby Town | Hereford United | Lincoln City | Macclesfield Town | Mansfield Town | Milton Keynes Dons | Morecambe | Notts County | Peterborough United | Rochdale | Rotherham United | Shrewsbury Town | Stockport County | Wrexham | Wycombe Wanderers |
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