|
|
1) Retro Shirts of Mansfield Town Football Club
2) Mansfield Town FC Books
3) Mansfield Town FC Gift Ideas 4) Buy All The LATEST soccer merchandise here 5) Click here for all the latest odds on Mansfield Town FC 6) Mansfield Town Football Club Ebay Auction here Mansfield Town Football Club - A Potted History Mansfield Town Football Club can trace their roots back to 1897 when they were founded as Mansfield Wesleyans. Initially, the club played only friendly matches but in 1902 they decided to enter the Mansfield And District Amateur League. It was a steep learning curve as in only their second fixture, Mansfield Wesleyans lost 13-0 at Shirebrook Swifts. At the end of their inaugural season in the league, they finished seventh. Mansfield Wesleyans' roots were church based and when the league dropped the word "amateur" in 1906, the church objected to the Mansfield Wesleyans causing the club to be renamed Mansfield Wesley. A further name change in 1910 saw the club adopt its current name of Mansfield Town Football Club. A year later, and Mansfield Town became the founder members of the Central Alliance League. During their years in this division they gradually improved and eventually became the winners. This led to the club applying for membership of the Football League and after several unsuccessful attempts, they were elected in 1931. A major recruitment exercise occurred for Mansfield's debut season in the Football League Division Three South, that saw twenty-three players signed. A year later, they were swapped to the Football League Division Three North. Mansfield continued to play in this division without achieving much success although they did come close to winning promotion - a feat reserved for the divisional Champions only at that time - during the 1950's. Mansfield did however, have some success in the FA Cup during these intervening seasons. Mansfield finally left the Division Three North in 1960 but it was the wrong way as the club were relegated to Division Four. However, it took them just a few seasons to reclaim their Division Three status, thereby finally winning a promotion in 1963. They stayed in this division until 1972 when Mansfield were relegated back to the bottom division. This though would be the catalyst for the most successful period in the history of Mansfield Town Football Club, which begun by winning the Division Four title in 1975. Two seasons later, and Mansfield Town were promoted to the Second Division for the first and only time in their history after winning promotion as the Third Division Champions. Alas, they would spend just one season in this division before succumbing to relegation in 1978. The 1980's and 1990's were mostly insignificant for Mansfield with a large proportion of their time spent in the lowest division. There were some bright spots, such as the signing of Phil Stant from Fulham for £50,000 which was a lot of money at a time for a club of Mansfield's stature. Another highlight was winning the Freight Rover Trophy at Wembley in 1987 when they defeated Bristol City on penalties. 2001/02 season saw Mansfield promoted to Division Two after finishing third in Division Three. Their stay in the Second Division was brief as they lasted just one season before being relegated. A succession of managers through the 2000's did not help matters as Mansfield had mixed seasons in League Two during this period. Worse was to follow as a disastrous 2007/08 season saw Mansfield relegated from the Football League and into the Conference National.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
