At a time when modern football ownership so often feels distant and corporate, Mansfield Town offer something strikingly different: a club led by a husband and wife partnership with ambition and dedication at the heart of their success.
Carolyn Radford, the club’s chief executive, has been a driving force, becoming one of the few women in the boardroom of men’s football, and has helped shape one of the most remarkable FA Cup stories of the season. Alongside her is husband John, the owner and supporter of the long-term vision they have shared.
This campaign, their 16th at the club, has already delivered unforgettable moments.
The magic of the FA Cup is a saying cemented in the folklore of English football – and this year has been no different. With both Sheffield United and Burnley falling foul of underestimating Mansfield Town already, now they face a dream-come-true tie against Arsenal, who will travel to Nottinghamshire on March 7.
GB News had the chance to discuss their story at the club so far, the ups and downs in a rollercoaster journey that has seen them rise from non-league football to hosting the pinnacle of the game at their very own stadium.
“It’s just been an incredible journey, an emotional journey,” Carolyn explained. “We’ve now got our three boys who are almost teenagers, and they’ve just grown up around the football club. Two of them are Arsenal fans – obviously, Mansfield is their first team – so they’re just absolutely in shock that their football heroes are literally coming to their house almost.”
John and Carolyn have overseen two promotions and multiple Wembley trips during their 16 years at the helm of the club – but this year’s FA Cup giant-killings top the lot.
“I would say the FA Cup for us has got to be the highlight so far,” John told the People’s Channel, although he was keen reiterate throughout that the story was not over yet; they still have the Premier League table-toppers to come.
But it hasn’t always been plain sailing for the husband and wife duo in Nottinghamshire. John, who made his fortune through One Call Insurance, bought the club for just £1 back in September 2010, but inherited thousands in debts and a club in financial turmoil. At that point, the club were in the National League.
John and Carolyn Radford have run Mansfield Town for 16 years
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“We didn’t realise the magnitude of what the task ahead was going to be and just how much of a mess the whole place was in,” Carolyn recalled. “This is the problem when football clubs aren’t nourished, and they don’t have any love, or there’s no emotion or money; they’re very quickly going into a state of demise, and we’ve seen it, unfortunately.”
But the club was soon snapped into shape by the pair. A year after the purchase, Carolyn was hired as the club’s chief executive, aged just 29, and by 2013, they had made it back into League Two after five years in England’s fifth tier.
Within eight years, a brand new training ground had been built, and before they reached a decade at the club, they re-purchased the stadium.
“Probably the goal at the time was to get back into the league, own our own ground and sort a training facility out. We had no training facility at the time,” John said. “Everything around the ground smartened itself up, it’s one of those things where you talk about potholes – there was even very little tarmac down on the car park or anything like that.”
They even boast a shiny new set of padel courts by the stadium, and just two years ago, they returned to League One for the first time in 21 years. With that, average attendances soared to over 7,500 – the highest in almost 40 years.
Behind it all has been Carolyn, who was the youngest CEO in professional football when starting in the role.
“I set myself high standards,” she says. “But I think visibility of women in leadership is important.
“It’s a collaborative effort. Everything is in life.”
The dynamics of working and having a family together might be the idea of hell to some. To the Radfords, it’s all they’ve known, and in fact, what complements them in their personal life has the same impact professionally.
Carolyn Radford was appointed chief executive at Mansfield in 2011 aged just 29
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“We’ve never known anything else,” Carolyn says. “I’ve got a fantastic mentor in John. He drives people with his tenacity; he never gives up. His strength of character, business and leadership skills. And so, I’ve been very fortunate to see the way that business works and to be able to try to emulate.”
She adds: “What football has brought to us as a family and as a couple and what I hope that we’ve helped to instil within the whole of the Mansfield community and Nottinghamshire is that sense of hope and that anything can happen, literally because we took over a shell.
“And it’s not just John and I, this has been a journey for a lot of people. There are lots of people behind the scenes that aren’t always mentioned and are definitely not forgotten with John and I, but it’s a huge operation.
“And even all the managers that have come before, everybody has come into the football club with a good heart and trying to push it forward, and we’re very grateful to have had fantastic people in the past and currently to help make dreams happen… like beating Arsenal.”
John and Carolyn Radford have presided over major infrastructure overhaul at Mansfield Town during their tenure
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Even if the odds are stacked against them for that particular fixture, it has been a remarkable cup campaign so far. It began in November, with a narrow 3-2 home win over League Two’s Harrogate Town, and it started to gain momentum after a dramatic penalty shoot-out victory over Accrington Stanley, also in the league below.
But where it really gained traction was at Bramall Lane, where they ran out 4-3 victors against Sheffield United. The Stags resisted a second-half comeback from the Blades, who themselves were mere minutes from securing Premier League football just last summer.
Two Louis Reed screamers from the edge of the area caught the headlines. Thankfully, he remains tied down in Mansfield, says John.
“He was just standing outside the box, hit them straight off a volley straight into the top corner, not once, but twice. He’s on fire at the moment!” he said.
“I’m sure that he’ll be marked and what have you. Thankfully, he signed a contract with us, so we’ve got all that sorted out!”
Two brilliant Louis Reed strikes saw The Stags topple Sheffield United in the third round of the FA Cup
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Louis Reed stepped up again to smash in a free kick that ensured Mansfield’s place in the fifth round
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And Reed’s heroics did not end there. He produced a sumptuous free-kick, akin to that of Dominik Szoboszlai, against Premier League strugglers Burnley, 10 minutes from time to send the Stags through to the fifth round.
“Reedy’s free kick was absolutely fantastic. The way he got it just down and over the wall like that…” John explained, seemingly pinching himself, that yes, it really had happened.
Carolyn, however, felt a little more sympathetic: “On the flip side, if you’re a Burnley supporter or for Scott Parker, that’s the cruel thing of football.”
But their sympathies stopped when moving onto the next round, and they only had one team in their sights.
“Our celebrations were certainly quite high when myself and the children and the wife, we all sat in this room and we watched the balls getting drawn. When Arsenal was drawn against us, we were high-fiving the twins and everything. We’re very happy for it,” John said.
Carolyn added: “I think we needed it as well. Personally, as a family, as a town, I think we needed this little bit of FA magic.”
