Mansfield Town: How promotion 'heartbreaks' have led to Stags joy

Mansfield Town will play in the third tier next season for the first time in 21 years

"Horrible" and "heartbreaking" is how the masterminds of Mansfield Town's promotion summed up what it has taken to reach League One.

Among the chaotic scenes of jubilation, as thousands of Mansfield fans streamed onto the One Call Stadium pitch to celebrate their promotion-clinching win against Accrington on Tuesday, those words from Stags manager Nigel Clough and owner John Radford seemed to contradict the euphoric mood of the moment.

But they define the very reason the Stags partied so hard - with players hoisted on to shoulders, and Clough serenaded with chants from the grateful heaving mass of supporters.

Finally, Mansfield - a side who have flirted with promotion almost constantly in recent years - got over the line.

The play-off final defeat at Wembley in 2022, missing out on automatic promotion on the final day of 2019 and missing out on the play-offs by a solitary goal last term were frustrations released in celebration.

"They are not moments of despair, that is just football," Radford told BBC Sport. "Your heart gets broken, but we want to go for it every year.

"We are not a club looking backwards, we are always looking forward. We wanted to get promoted, wanted to get to League One and we have."

'Hard work and pain'

Clough was brought in at Field Mill in November 2020.

In each full season since, the Stags have been a promotion contenders.

The near misses in each of his previous two seasons have been fuel for the fire of promotion desire.

Defeat at Wembley prompted him to call football "horrible", but when asked if he still felt that way on such a blissful night, he chose to reiterate his previous point.

"We are enjoying one tonight, but it has taken us three years, a lot of hard work and quite a bit of pain to get to this point," Clough told BBC East Midlands Today.

"It can be a horrible game, and it still is frequently.

"We left Wembley incredibly dejected a couple years ago, so it is little bit of payback for that."

Victory against Accrington moved Mansfield up to second and, while the League Two title has already been claimed by Stockport, Clough demands his side finishes the campaign strong before attention turns to the Stags' first season back in the third tier for 21 years.

"We got promoted, brilliant," Clough told BBC Radio Nottingham. "Let's now win the last two games and finish the season with as many points as we can."

In the meantime, preparations for life in League One will be getting under way for a side that last played in the third tier when it was still known as the Second Division in 2002-03.

How will the Stags fare in League One?

Clough insists they have not "tempted fate" in getting a head start on those plans, and adds that any thoughts on promotion from previous attempts are of little use as "circumstances are different" now.

Midfielder Ollie Clarke, who has been at the club since 2020, says they will be looking to make an impression in League One - a level where Mansfield have spent just one season in the past three decades.

"I'd say we have a lot of quality in this group," Clarke said. "Keeping the group together will be the main thing.

"Obviously there is an improvement in quality and standards, and we just need to raise our standards.

"But I think everyone in this group is probably capable of playing at a higher level anyway, so I can't see why we can't go up and really contend next season."

While Mansfield are unfamiliar with League One, it is a division that Clough is accustomed to - having managed both Sheffield United and Burton in the third tier.

And it was with the Brewers that the 58-year-old achieved his most famous promotion, taking the small east Staffordshire club to the Championship on a meagre budget.

After Clough spoke gratefully of being given the time and resources by the Stags owners to win promotion to League Two, he was asked if he could match his Burton achievements with the Nottinghamshire club.

He responded with a laugh and by saying: "Hold on, we have only been out of League Two for 10 minutes.

"Let this one sink in and then we will look towards next season."