Football Season Guide

Owner John Radford made a bold and brave decision to sack manager David Flitcroft and replace him with academy boss John Dempster at the end of last season. Flitcroft paid for his failure to take Mansfield Town up; having missed out on automatic promotion on the final day of the season before losing out to Newport County on penalties in a two-legged play-off semi-final. Radford has spent big in an attempt to get the Stags out of League 2 but promotion remains elusive. The appointment of Dempster is a departure following in the footsteps of Flitcroft and Steve Evans and might point to a tightening of the purse strings. It might not be quite so clear cut however with Dempster having paid a fee to bring in striker Andy Cook from Walsall whilst striker Nicky Maynard has also joined after a splendid campaign with Bury. The Stags certainly have plenty of firepower with Craig Davies and Danny Rose also in the squad. The only noteworthy departure is that of Nottingham Forest loan midfielder Jorge Grant but even he flattered to deceive in the second half of the campaign. One of the key factors in Dempster’s appointment is to oversee the transition of several promising youngsters into the first team. They will have plenty of experience to help them and it should see the club challenging for promotion once again.