Mansfield’s season seen through the eyes of Mark Stevenson
Mark Stevenson is the head of media and communications at Mansfield Town and has overseen over a decade of different players, managers and expectations. The current campaign sees Mansfield Town in the automatic places, two points ahead of MK Dons, who they play on the 13th of April and a game in hand on Tuesday, at home to Accrington Stanley. So, what does he make of the job that manager Nigel Clough and his players are doing?
“First of all, I think it’s been a season of great promise. The way the whole club is at the minute- and the fact the club is in the top three with four games- shows this season has been one of the great improvements.” The improvement has been massive compared to last year, when the Stags missed out on the play-offs by a single goal in an injury-dictated campaign.
This season Clough has also had to deal with some important players missing out, as Stevenson explained, “The biggest stumbling block has been the injuries, most recently with seven first team defenders currently out, meaning attackers like Jordan Bowery and Lucas Akins have had to play out of position.”
Despite this, Mansfield have the second-best defence in the league (42), only one behind Stockport County, and with the additions of Aden Flint and Lewis Brunt on loan being critical due to Alfie Kilgour being sidelined for most of the season. With the recent game at home to Forest Green Rover exemplifying a description of, “The performance on Tuesday night was one of real quality and a togetherness to get back on track. One of the best I’ve seen this season.”
Promotion has seemed to evade the Stags and their quest to get into League One with a real sense of hunger, apparent in Nigel Clough, since losing to Port Vale at Wembley, going two down and with a man down inside half an hour, sending 16,500 Mansfield supporters going home hurt, despite the team’s tremendous effort to get there. With that season, the trademark of hope for the town- “It would be huge for the town to be back in League One, a division we haven’t been in since 2002, when it was called Division Three, which would be huge for the club and show real improvement”.
Furthermore, Stevenson insists that despite the great position Mansfield find themselves in, it would not be a “Huge problem or disaster”. This shows the way the club is going, and in the last 10 years, the club has shown some resilience by coming back from situations that it looked like promotion was going to be nailed on, but with football that is never seems to be the case.
In seasons gone, the club would typically make in excess of 10 signings and have a squad overhaul. But in last year’s transfer window, a structure has been added- “There certainly wouldn’t need to be a big rebuild, and only a couple of players would need to be added with the quality of the squad.
The quality in League Two has been well documented this season, with Wrexham’s Hollywood owners bringing large audiences, as well as Notts County being the pre-season favourites to go up. In line with some of their summer additions such as David McGoldrick though, that has not quite materialised. Mansfield have performed well in the majority of the games against the sides around them, but Stevenson is appreciative of how difficult the league is and noted, “The best is probably Wrexham. Mansfield have played them three times, twice in the league and once in the cup and are yet to beat them. They are defensively solid and restricted Mansfield to very little on Good Friday.”
Phil Parkinson’s men have been impressive this season, with a very healthy goal difference. His team have been defensively solid with Paul Mullin up front, who is competing for the Golden Boot despite missing the start of the season due to injury, with many believing he has the quality of a League One player.
However, they aren’t the only team that Mansfield have had difficulties against- “Another good side is MK Dons. At Field Mill they were impressive and imposed themselves upon the game and have got some real quality coming down from League One.” It sets up to be a pivotal and deciding battle at the weekend, with over 3,500 Mansfield fans travelling to attend, still reliving the 2019 fixture that Mansfield lost out to in a winner takes all decider on the last day of the season. Mansfield’s record isn’t great at the MK Stadium, but it does have a slightly different feel to that devastating last day for Stags fans.
The closely fought nature of the league, with the teams that are competing for promotion, shows how far the league has come since Mansfield gained promotion in the 2012/13 season from the Conference. Stevenson recalls the difference in quality, “When Mansfield got promoted, the step up in quality was there, but it is not comparable to the quality that has developed overtime, and some really good teams have dropped down, enhancing its competitiveness.”
Stevenson has been with the club for years and exclaims it “could be a season to remember”, but he also wants Mansfield Town fans to remember, regardless of the outcome- “There has been progress in abundance.”
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