MANSFIELD TOWN F.C.

'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 colors 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 neighboring 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 just under 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 were 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

Contents

History

Current squad

Player Records

External links

History

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, and 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 favorite 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. At the same time the club appointed James Derry, a Newark businessman, to the post of Non-executive part time Chairman. Derry, who admitted that he was also a Lincoln and Notts County fan before joining the Stags replaced Peter Lee who had briefly held the post. Derry's tenure has done little to calm things at the Mill although he has succeeded in deflecting criticism from Keith Haslam the highly controversial owner and chief executive. Derry very quickly agreed to meet the fans' groups and made a concerted effort to drive a wedge between the three main groups (Stags Supporters' Association, Ollerton Stags Supporters' Club and Team Mansfield) and the SFFC (Stags Fans For Change - a group set up to get Haslam out of the club.) Derry claimed in a radio interview that the SFFC had told him that they were willing for the club to go into bankrupcy and then reform if it meant getting Haslam out. Although he has not taken the opportunity to apologise for this comment, Derry has admitted that this comment had never been made at the meeting and he was mistaken.
Derry also claimed that he had not had any business dealings with Mansfield Town FC before his joining the club. This is also highly disputed.
Some encouraging early form under Dearden saw a play-off position look feasible in early February.Mansfield played superbly at Lincoln beating them convincingly restoring pride after a 4-2 loss at Field Mill. At this stage the new Chairman made a very public offer of paying for the players to go to the caribbean on holiday if they got to the playoffs. This statement started a run of eight games without a win which resulted in Mansfield crashing down the table, and being in serious danger of relegation until the penultimate match of the season. It was felt by many fans that Derry's offer had backfired and he had undone much of the good done by Billy Dearden after his return. Mr Derry also annoucned at that time that the club was for sale but he would not be advertising the fact nationally as 'the thought of someone coming up from London to asset strip the club' worried him. The last months of the season saw the Stags play away at Notts County, 4,000 Stags fans made their way to Meadow Lane at a time when home crowds were lower than the boycotted game against Macclesfield. The game was a tense draw but the most interesting point was the flypast arranged by the SFFC which announced that the club was for sale and called for Haslam to go. Most shocking was the pitch invasion on the 2nd to last game of the season with some appalling sceces with home fans being attacked by stewards. This included kicking, punching young boys and placing them in headlocks as they were led off the pitch.This appeared to be an attempt to get revenge of the scenes that were unfolding all season with the increasingly rivalry with "G" BlOCK and stewards.
The club responded to the violence by inferring that the young children should not have been on the pitch. James Derry initially gave his football safety officer his full backing but John Sidney soon left the club to be replaced by Les Norman. (Derry had stated in his first interview after joining the club that he was meeting with the senioe stewards and would be ensuring that the standards of work were OK - this was one of the things that he asked to be judged on after 6 weeks) One of Norman's first tasks was to undertake serious changes so that the Nottinghamshire Safety Advisory Group (SAG) would allow sufficient fans in to the ground for the Stags to meet football league requirements. The SAG having reduced capacity in the light of several worrying incidents at Field Mill during the previous season.
The 2006 - 2007 season also saw the creation of the SFFC (Stags Fans for Change) an organisation aiming for the removal of 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. Derry, who had created a reputation for putting his foot in his mouth and for making grand statements in live interviews in his early months, simply stated that he took it with a pinch of salt. This comment was typical of his poor public relationship with the SFFC. Derry shocked very few people when, after rejecting bids for the club as Chairman, then announced that he was leading a bid himself. The 2007 / 8 season promises to be as worrying as previous recent ones.

Current squad

:''As of 9 September 2007.''

Player Records

★ 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}

External links

★ 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