It’s been a funny old season for Mansfield Town. What started off as a summer full of optimism following the removal of Manager David Flitcroft and the signing of Nicky Maynard in attack the club soon saw promotion hopes fade away under John Dempster and even had relegation looming under current Manager Graham Coughlan although thankfully following Saturday’s win over Newport County and with just a dozen games left this year the Stags will now be confident that a thirteen point gap on bottom of the table Stevenage will be enough to avoid any threat of getting dragged in towards losing their football league status.

After crumbling from being odds on automatic promotion hopefuls to playoff semi final losers in a matter of weeks last season, John & Carolyn Radford immediately got to work in the summer replacing then Manager Flitcroft with Academy Boss Dempster. Touted as one of the Divisions pre-season title favourites the Stags stuttered to a start perhaps feeling the pressure of the unwanted tag with a couple of wins a couple of defeats and three draws from their first seven games.

Form dwindled as the Stags slipped down the table in September with three more defeats and a draw before beating Grimsby (1-0) and Oldham (6-1) in what looked like a turnaround in club fortunes.

Mansfield however stuttered again under Dempster and although admirably trying to play the right way they would often come unstuck, defensively vulnerable and with key injuries to Maynard and Rose in particular, lacking goal threat at times when goals were needed most.

In the end, Mansfield’s position languishing lower middle of the League Two table in mid-December was all too much for the Radford’s who decided enough was enough for Dempster before going all in for a Manager earning high acclaim in the Division above.

Graham Coughlan a tough no nonsense centre half in his playing day, a Dubliner who lived in Sheffield was commuting to his day job at Bristol Rovers where he had managed the club to fourth in the League One table. The Radford’s seen a window of opportunity and surprisingly went in for a smash and grab. Ever since Coughlan has been laying down his law at Mansfield Town Football Club.

Things haven’t always gone to plan under Coughlan, a man who regards high work rate and impeccable attitude as the fundamentals in getting good results is slowly seeing his philosophy put into place by his players.

Despite an underwhelming record of 3 wins, 4 draws and 6 defeats since Coughlan’s arrival, fitness levels are increasing, performances are improving, individuals are slowly believing that hard work does pay off. And even if each week cracks do appear, the building process on a damaged structure will always take time… But with time Coughlan can certainly build something structurally solid for Mansfield.

The Stags first clean sheet in five on Saturday was reward for his players who’ve often been criticised by the Manager for not always getting things right. Not scared to throw his team under the bus Coughlan deals with the Press in a way that is designed to get a reaction off his squad. He will certainly not be nice if things aren’t going well, but if you do get it right boy will he back you.

Striker Danny Rose has been one of those players that has seen the difference first hand, after scoring the match winner on Saturday he stated “It’s been tough but it’s good. We’re getting fitter and we’re enjoying getting fitter.”

“It showed on Saturday because we dug in late on and got the three points.”

Rose said “On Tuesdays and Thursdays we have two gym sessions, one before training and one after. Training is tough and the running is tough – we get hard work out of it.”

“I feel good and the lads do as well. The distances we’re covering in games show that we are getting there.”

“We’ll continue to improve and hopefully we can now end on a positive in order to build something for next season.”

The Stags position in the league is to get as many points as possible before now until May whilst individuals are learning the way Coughlan wants to play, they are also understanding the requirements needed to get results thus proving to the Manager that they are also cut out for the job in hand.

With relegation (almost) far enough away to feel threatened by (the bottom team very rarely masses more than 40 points), should the Stags win two or three of their next six games it should be enough to ensure League Two football again next year.

That would leave ample time to get the Stags playing the way Coughlan wants in tweaking the finer margins from fitness levels to tactical approaches as the club look to build ahead of the 2020/21 campaign.

With three months of football still to be played and a full pre-season for Coughlan to put his stamp on things the club will go into the next season very much with promotion at the forefront of ambition.

And the signs are already there that Coughlan, a tough minded hard edged respected and responsible man will slowly get this team playing football the right way and in the right areas, doing the right things at the right times and working harder than they have done before. If he gets all those ingredients right with a bit of quality on top then Mansfield will certainly be a side to look out for in the right regions of the League Two table next season as we put this one very firmly to bed and long forgotten.

*Main image @mansfieldtownfc Graham Coughlan is slowly getting his point across.