About the Stags

A Brief History
The Stags grew from the much older organisation of Mansfield Wesleyans, who formed in 1891 and played in the Midland Counties League. Mansfield Wesley officially changed the clubs name to Mansfield Town in June 1910, a fact confirmed by the Football Association. A year later they joined the newly-launched Central Alliance league.
After being thrown out of this league owing to the poor state of their ground, they were eventually readmitted in 1915-16, the last full season before competitive football was abandoned for the remainder of the First World War. They did win the league in this season, however ! In 1920 the Stags were involved in talks which led to the formation of the new Third Division of the Football League. In 1921 Mansfield Town became a limited company and started to play in the Midland Counties League.
In 1926, the Stags were admitted to the Central Combination, in support of their bid for election to the Football League. They then spent another four seasons in the Midland Counties League before finally, at the seventh attempt, being elected as members of Division 3 South (their previous unsuccessful applications had targeted the Northern Section). Because of the Geographical position of Mansfield, the club was to be continually shuffled between the old Divisions Three North and South over the next four decades.

More Recently...
It took Mansfield Town 46 years to reach the dizzy heights of Division Two (43 years longer than had been predicted when league status was achieved in 1931), though they did go desperately close in the 1950-51 season - finishing second to Rotherham United. In the 1976-77 season Stags were never far from the top six. The last match of the season was away at Wrexham, who needed a win to gain promotion, whereas Mansfield needed a win to be promoted as champions. Stags scored in the last few minutes to come away 1-0 winners and clinch the championship. However, they could only manage 21st place at the end of season '77-78 and were relegated back to Division Three and subsequently, the old Division Four.

Wembley !
The first and, to date, the only time Mansfield Town have made an appearance at Wembley was for the Final of the Freight Rover Trophy on 24th May 1987. The opponents that day were Bristol City, the holders, and both teams brought a creditable number of travelling fans (25,000 from Mansfield alone) . The score was 1-1 after 90 minutes and extra-time also failed to yield a result. However, thanks to heroics from young stags 'keeper Kevin Hitchcock (now of Chelsea), Mansfield ran out the winners. The occasion, the greatest in the clubs history, was appropriately celebrated the next day, as the team made their way through the town on an open-top bus. It is estimated some 15,000 people lined the streets to see them.