Mansfield Town
Also written as Mansfield.
The club
Mansfield Town were founded in 1897 as Mansfield Wesleyans and play at Field Mill in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, known since 2013 by its sponsored name the One Call Stadium. The club have occupied the site since 1919, but the ground itself is older than that by some distance: football has been played there since 1861, and on that basis it is described as the oldest ground in the Football League, with some sources dating it to 1850. Capacity is given as 10,022 on the club's Wikipedia entry, while the Field Mill article puts current usable capacity at 7,276 and 10,000 with the ground fully open; the discrepancy is a consequence of stand closures. The Bishop Street Stand was taken out of use and rebuilt from 2024, with piling and concrete work to address ground stability, and reopened in August 2025 with 727 seats. The club are the Stags and play in blue and yellow.
Recent seasons
Mansfield were sixteenth in League Two in 2020/21 with 58 points, seventh in 2021/22 with 77 and eighth in 2022/23 with 75, missing the play-offs on both of the latter occasions. In 2023/24 they went up automatically, finishing third with 86 points, and in the same season reached the fourth round of the EFL Cup, an unusually deep run for a fourth-tier club. The first season back in League One, 2024/25, was a struggle at seventeenth with 54 points.
The 2025/26 campaign was a clear improvement: tenth in League One with 65 points from 46 games, sixteen wins, seventeen draws and thirteen defeats, 62 goals scored and 50 conceded. That draw count is the number to reach for; it was the story of the season. The FA Cup run went to the fifth round, the deepest of the recent period. They went out of the EFL Cup in the second round and did not clear the EFL Trophy group. Lucas Akins was leading league scorer with nine; Will Evans and Rhys Oates each finished on eleven in all competitions.
Honours and landmarks
Mansfield have won the Third Division championship in 1976/77 and the Fourth Division in 1974/75. They were Conference Premier champions in 2012/13, which ended a five-year exile from the Football League. The one national cup is the Associate Members' Cup of 1986/87, and they were FA Trophy runners-up in 2010/11. Before joining the Football League they won the Midland League three times, in 1923/24, 1924/25 and 1928/29.
Record attendance at Field Mill is 24,467 against Nottingham Forest on 10 January 1953. Rod Arnold holds the appearance record with 522 games and Harry Johnson is the leading scorer with 114. No all-time record transfer fee paid or received was established from the sources consulted.
Notable scorelines
Mansfield's record win is 9-2, and it has been achieved twice: against Rotherham United in 1932 and, remarkably, again against Harrogate Town in 2024, more than ninety years later. Record defeat is 1-8 against Walsall in 1933.
Head-to-head notes
This site covers Mansfield only in the EFL Cup, where the club's record over the recent period is modest: first-round exits in 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2024/25, a second round in 2025/26, and the outlier fourth round of 2023/24, reached while Mansfield were still a League Two side.
They have been drawn at home to Sheffield United in the first round for 2026/27, at the One Call Stadium on 9 August 2026. No published all-time head-to-head record for Mansfield against Sheffield United was established from the sources consulted, and records against later opponents cannot be established until those rounds are drawn. Sheffield United were in the Championship in 2025/26 and remain there for 2026/27, so this is a tie against higher-division opposition at home, the shape of tie Mansfield's 2023/24 run was built on.
Right now (2026/27)
Nigel Clough is manager and has been since November 2020, making him one of the longest-serving managers in the EFL. This is Mansfield's third consecutive season in League One.
The summer recruitment has been built entirely on free transfers and on experience rather than youth. Striker David McGoldrick and midfielder Jon Russell both arrived from Barnsley on free transfers on 1 July 2026, and striker Michael Smith joined on a free from Preston North End on 13 July. The departures were mostly releases: Victor Adeboyejo left for Bromley, Max Dickov for Eastleigh, and a number of academy players moved on. No fee was published for any incoming or outgoing player.
Pre-season took in four matches in July 2026: a 2-1 win at Retford United, a 4-3 defeat to Barrow, a 4-0 win over Alfreton Town, and a fixture with Derby County on 31 July. The League One campaign opens at home to Doncaster Rovers on Saturday 15 August 2026, six days after the cup tie with Sheffield United.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansfield_Town_F.C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mansfield_Town_F.C._seasons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Mansfield_Town_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Mansfield_Town_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_Mill
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.