Mansfield Town Football Club is an Englishassociation football club based in theNottinghamshire town ofMansfield. Founded in 1897 as Mansfield Wesleyans, the team first entered the Mansfield & District Amateur League in 1902. Four years later, the club turned professional, tweaked its name to Mansfield Wesley, and joined the Notts & District League. The team made their debut in theFA Cup in1909–10, and joined the Central Alliance in 1911, by which time the club had adopted its current name of Mansfield Town.[1] In the first post-First World War season, they moved to theField Mill ground and won the Central Alliance title, and in 1921, they were accepted into theMidland League. Three years later, they won the Midland League title, repeated the feat the following year, and were runners-up the next. Applications for election tothe Football League were unsuccessful, but in the hope of a better class of football, they had one season in the Midland Combination, primarily areserve league for Football League clubs, before returning to the Midland League. In 1928–29, Mansfield won the Midland League title by a nine-point margin and beat two Football League clubs on the way to their first appearance in the fourth round of the FA Cup, in which they lost 2–0 toArsenal atHighbury.[2]
Geographically, Mansfield lay on the border between the catchment areas of the Northern and Southern sections of the regionalised Third Division of the League. They had previously applied for election to theNorthern Section; for the1931–32 season, they applied to theSouthern Section, and were admitted. After one season, in which they struggled, the team was reallocated to the Northern Section, before returning to the Southern in 1937.[3] Competitive football was suspended for the duration of the Second World War. Mansfield finished 22nd and bottom in the first post-war season, and thus had to apply forre-election to the League. The management committee decided that in light of the difficult circumstances facing all clubs in resuming competitive professional football after the war, all clubs facing re-election should be accepted unopposed.[4] Mansfield were transferred to the Northern Section for 1947–48. Three seasons later, they finished runners-up – at that time, only the champions were promoted – and reached the fifth round (last 16) of the FA Cup for the first time, losing toFirst Division team and eventualcup finalistsBlackpool. Against a background of financial and governance problems that brought the club close to bankruptcy,[5] Mansfield remained in the Northern Section until the regional sections were amalgamated into nationalThird andFourth Divisions in 1958, when they were placed in the Third Division.[6]
Two years later, Mansfield were relegated for the first time in their history. In their third season in the fourth tier, they finished fourth and were promoted ongoal average, ahead ofGillingham by 0.118 of a goal.[7] After a further nine years in the Third – during which time they reached the1968–69 FA Cup quarter-final, which remains their best achievement in the competition – and three in the Fourth Divisions, Mansfield won their first title at Football League level, taking the1974–75 Fourth Division by a six-point margin. A season of consolidation, whose highlights included progressing to thequarter-final of the League Cup and the first of twoAnglo-Scottish Cup semi-finals, preceded another championship: the1976–77 Third Division title gained Mansfield promotion to theFootball League Second Division for the first and as yet only time. They could not maintain that status,[8][6] and for the next thirty years continued to drift between third and fourth tiers, during which time they won the1986–87 Associate Members' Cup, a cup competition open to teams from the lowest two tiers of the League; Mansfield beatBristol City in apenalty shoot-out inthe final.[9] In2007–08, they finished 23rd in the fourth tier and were relegated out of the Football League into theConference National (promotion and relegation between League and Conference had replaced re-election in 1987).[6] They reachedthe final of the2010–11 FA Trophy, losing toDarlington in the last minute ofextra time,[10] before returning to the League as Conference champions in 2013.[6] After two play-off failures in the next ten seasons, Mansfield gained automatic promotion toLeague One via a third-place finish inthe 2023–24 season.[6]
Since their admission to the Football League, Mansfield Town have spent 1 season in the second tier of theEnglish football league system, 42 in the third, 38 in the fourth, and 5 in the top tier ofnon-league football. The table details the team's achievements in seniorfirst-team competitions and their top league goalscorers (where known) from their debut season in the Mansfield & District Amateur League in 1902–03 to the end of the most recently completed season.
^abTwo points deducted for fielding an ineligible player.[1]
^The goals against figure of 64 in theNonLeague Matters source is a typo; all contemporary newspapers have 54, and tables published for matchdays before the final table are consistent with that figure.[11][18]
^The1939–40 season was abandoned with three matches played when the Second World War began.[6]
^Although the Football League did not resume until the 1946–47 season, the FA Cup was contested in 1945–46. From the first round proper to the sixth round (quarter-final), results were determined on aggregate scoreover two legs.[6][13]
^All clubs facing re-election, which included Mansfield, were accepted unopposed, in recognition of the circumstances.[4]
^The 1981–82 season saw the introduction ofthree points for a win instead of two.[23] Mansfield had two points deducted for fielding an ineligible player.[6]
^When the newly formedFA Premier League split from the Football League, the remaining divisions of the Football League were renumbered upwards, so Mansfield were promoted from Division Four to Division Two.[23]
^The 2019–20 football season was disrupted by the effects of theCOVID-19 pandemic. The EFL was suspended in March 2020 and in June, the League Two clubs voted to end the regular season programme early. Teams had not all played the same number of matches, so it was agreed to construct final league tables on a points-per-game basis. Mansfield Town's 48.56 points per game placed them 21st.[31][32]
^For Football League seasons up to 1995–96, except where individually referenced:"Clubs: Mansfield Town: Season players".English National Football Archive. Retrieved25 September 2020. Access season required via dropdown menu. From 1996–97 onwards:"Mansfield Town: player appearances".Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved21 May 2024. Select season required via dropdown menu.
^"Central Alliance".Walsall Advertiser. 3 May 1913. p. 8.
^"Football. Notts. and Derbyshire League".Nottingham Evening Post. 4 May 1915. p. 5.
