Mansfield Town appoint Graham Coughlan as new manager

Mansfield Town have announced the appointment of Graham Coughlan as their new manager.

Coughlan joins the Stags after leading his Bristol Rovers side to fourth place in Sky Bet League One this season, just two points shy of second-placed Ipswich Town.

His managerial career began as caretaker boss of Bristol Rovers in 2018, following the departure of Darrell Clarke.

In his five games as caretaker manager, Graham Coughlan saw the Pirates gain 10 points, lifting them out of the relegation zone.

He was appointed as permanent manager of the Gas in January 2019, where he held a win rate of 45% – losing just 13 of his 56 matches in charge – and leaves the club on the brink of the automatic promotion places in Sky Bet League One.

Graham Coughlan said:

“This is a massive opportunity and a massive chance for me. The main attraction was the ambition of the chairman [John Radford].

“How he [John Radford] spoke, the ambition he was displaying, the facilities at the club, it was a tremendous and huge opportunity to take on a football club and try to get them promoted.

“I’ve gone across to the training ground [The RH Academy] and I think the facilities are better than a lot of Championship clubs’ facilities – they are very impressive.

“The opportunity to manage a club like Mansfield Town, with the ambition at this football club, the facilities, and of course to be able to be at home with my wife and kids, was an absolute mammoth attraction.

“I’ve been living in this part of the country for the best part of 20 years and it’s an honest, hard-working area – that’s what I am and that’s the background I’ve come from.

“That’s all we drummed into the players at Bristol Rovers. If you’re not honest and you’re not hard-working, you won’t have any place at this football club. We will be honest, we will be hard-working and we will wear that jersey with pride. That’s all I ask of the players.”

The Stags’ new boss will take his first training session tomorrow morning,before meeting the media at a news conference at One Call Stadium at 1pm.