Mansfield Town FC - A New Dawn

[therusstler]

Day One.

I was met in the car park by a scruffy lad in a tracksuit "Welcome to Mansfield FC, sorry the Chairman can't be here to welcome you properly, my name's Gary and I'll show you around". This was my welcome to Mansfield, a crappy town near Nottingham, a footballing minnow surrounded on all sides by the comparative titans of Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Nottingham Forest as well as deadly rivals Chesterfield.

I'm eventually shown to my office, a shabby affair reeking of cigars with a desk, an old looking computer and a neglected pot plant. I have a few meetings later that day where I find out the club board would prefer us to play a direct kind of football but I’m not going to be listening to the morons in suits at Field Mill. I’m going to be playing a strangulating possession game. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Chairman, I wear the tracksuit bottoms round here.

As I walk back to my office I find Gary skulking about the lobby, I ask him in for a cup of tea and pump him for information. I find out the average attendance is about 3,000 with a max capacity of just over 9,000. I intend to change all that of course but the indifferent attitude of the locals to the club and the shabby ground and facilities mean this will be a difficult project. My big plans for the stags may well take longer than I initially thought.

The finances are of course appalling and we seem to have a large directors loan which is slowly killing the club so keeping the wage budget under control is going to be paramount. I’m going to need to be pretty shrewd in the transfer market to build a team with the meagre resources we have.

 

[therusstler]

Day Two

Day Two

Casting my eye over the lads in my first training session I was not entirely disgusted with what I saw, the team itself is not too bad, we have a few players who show a bit of promise, the young central midfielder THOMAS in particular has the potential to develop. His more senior midfield partner CHAPMAN also looks handy for this level, a creative passer of the ball who should be able to unlock defences and chip in with a few goals.

TAVAZOLI is probably our best defender but I’m not sure I’d trust him to get us out of this league and apart from the lad MARSDEN who is out on loan there is nothing to be excited about here.

As the lads hit the showers I retire to my office to weep and browse the loan market.

 

[therusstler]

Day Three

Day Three

"I can't pay you well, we're probably stuck in league 2 for a few years, the facilities are appalling and the team lacks ability in almost every area but its a long term project and I'm looking to build something really special, fancy it?".

I spent today ringing around a few old boys looking to build a backroom team around me. Most people were either put off by the club or the laughable compensation on offer. I couldn't blame them.

I did get a couple of fellas interested though, I've brought in Tony Haycock as my assistant, he's an excellent tactician as well as having a good eye for a player and I'll need all his ability in the coming years, he's onboard with the project long term and is happy to work for peanuts. I also managed to get on the phone with a certain Emile Heskey who seems keen to join, I love his enthusiasm and he has the makings of a future assistant manager. I've promised him we'll put him through his coaching badges and he seemed chuffed to bits. I've asked Tina the kit lady if we can get a tracksuit in his size. She seems hopeful.

 

[Nffcgem91]

looking forward to reading this one with me living not far from Mansfield. I have a lot of saves with Mansfield on previous games.

 

[therusstler]

Pre-Season

Pre-Season

It was time to get off the training ground and see what the lads could do on the pitch, Tony had arranged friendlies with Macclesfield and our affiliate Carlton as well as the big time charlies of Man City U-21's. I was keen to see how the lads performed. I wasn't to be disappointed as we beat Macclesfield 1-0, Carlton 3-1 and managed a respectable 1-1 draw against Man City.

Tony then mentioned something about a testimonial for someone called Coburn, I gave Tony a bollocking since the game was only 5 days before the start of the season against Carlisle but he bit back saying this was my responsibility as Manager. ****** smart ****.

Despite this, we played magnificently and won 3-0. BENNING stood out particularly with some marauding runs down the left, arriving at the back post late to score a wonderful team goal and round off our preparations for the season. There was a quiet hum of confidence about the place as we returned to training the following day.

A reporter grabbed me whilst I was leaving the ground and I was made aware of the media prediction for the coming season, whilst I know the local hacks know less about the game than Tina the kit lady it still concerned me to hear we were predicted to finish 19th. I ate my pie and mash that evening in a sombre mood, keen to see the start of our season.

 

[therusstler]

looking forward to reading this one with me living not far from Mansfield. I have a lot of saves with Mansfield on previous games.

Glad to hear it, I live close too. I'm actually a few years ahead in the game but thought I'd try my hand at a story as I'm really enjoying the game so far. Hope you enjoy reading.

 

[Nffcgem91]

Glad to hear it, I live close too. I'm actually a few years ahead in the game but thought I'd try my hand at a story as I'm really enjoying the game so far. Hope you enjoy reading.

I'm sure I will I like reading stories of the local teams and lower league stories

Good luck!

 

[therusstler]

August

August

Our opening game of the season saw us beat Carlisle 3-2, a 5 goal thriller for the curious locals that sent them home happy and went some way to settling my apprehension about the coming season.

A trip east to Hull saw our Capital Cup dreams shredded in efficient fashion (2-1) but no one was complaining when we went on to thrash local rivals Notts County 3-0 and narrowly edge out Accrington 2-1 in the following two games. We rounded off the month with a scoreless home draw to Oxford and a good point on the road at York.

Unbeaten in the league, a local derby victory under my belt and confidence high. I brought Emile and Tony into my office and raised a mug of Nescafe for a good start. Plenty of work ahead but the lads had given me reason to dream, and it was spreading.

 

[FMSaddler96]

Good start and looking forward to where this goes. Always enjoy lower league threads. Like the layout as well but maybe include a few pictures or more detail

 

[therusstler]

Good start and looking forward to where this goes. Always enjoy lower league threads. Like the layout as well but maybe include a few pictures or more detail

Your right about images I'll definitely try and use more in future updates, thanks for reading!

 

[smpaarrkky]

Coming from and supporting Mansfield, I will be following this closely.
I always start every version of FM I buy with a Mansfield save, and then always loan them my best youth players when Im not managing them.

What season are you in as you say you had already played a bit before?

Is the mighty Matt Green still with you?