Mansfield Town CEO Carolyn Radford: It'll hurt if we don't get promoted from Sky Bet League Two
Carolyn Radford says 'it will hurt' if Mansfield miss out on promotion from Sky Bet League Two after a gruelling campaign.
The Stags currently sit second in the fourth tier with five games to go. With the top three getting automatic promotion, they are in with a chance but just a point separates them from fourth-placed Bury, who are now without victory in their last four outings.
After Steve Evans' departure for Peterborough in March 2018, David Flitcroft was appointed as his replacement and a poor run saw the Stags drop out of the play-offs.
Flitcroft was well backed in the summer, reassembling his squad with as many as 15 arrivals either on permanent or loan deals, and the club has so far reaped the benefits.
When asked about Mansfield's long-term goal, club CEO Radford told Sky Bet in an exclusive interview: "We always say we'd like to get into the Championship, I think that would be a level we would be able to sustain. But it's very, very difficult to get promoted.
Sky Bet: Mansfield odds-on for promotion this season, 8/1 for it to be via the play-offs
"Every single football club in the EFL wants to be promoted. There's a lot of competition out there. It will hurt if we don't get promoted at the end of the season. We're all pointing in the same direction in that respect.
"The manager's been given a budget to get us promoted, everything is geared up to get big crowds in and it would be very hard if we don't get promoted. We'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it."
Radford arrived at the Nottinghamshire club in 2011, early in their fourth season in the Conference.
They went up as champions in 2012/13 and have continued to build, with a step up to the third tier the next aim.
"[It's] definitely the most exciting that it's been in my history of being here," she said.
"It was great when we got promoted from the Conference back into the Football League, but now we've got all the infrastructure in place - a great manager that we get on really well with, which is important, we've got the training ground, the hotel, the new stand, crowds coming in.
"The football club is very much at the heart of the community and it's definitely in a good place but I feel we've still got a long way to go."
Radford's appointment made her the youngest chief executive in English football and, nearly eight years on, her impact is there for all to see.
"When I arrived at Mansfield for the first time, it was a club very much on its knees. It hadn't had much investment, lots of parts of the stadium were run down, it needed to be loved, someone to care about it again.
"I saw it as a big challenge. Me and my mum were it the kitchens making lasagne for the hospitality suite, putting all the pies in the oven for the kiosks, we didn't have any resources at all.
"We walked into nothing. I can definitely say I've done every job around this football club, which gives me great insight when I've got to delegate and direct people, because I know how long a pie takes to cook!
"I think people are surprised I am still here, sometimes I am too! I enjoy what I do, my successes are visible now for everyone to see, eight years on now in the role. I've worked really, really hard to get this football club to the level it's at.
"At the moment, we are completely unrecognisable to when I walked into the building. That's really great and I hope it proves that tenacity, hard work - be it from a man or a woman - does pay dividends in the end."
- Watch the full interview with Carolyn Radford from Sky Bet's Football's Real Stories, above, as she discusses the difficulties of working at a senior level in club football as a woman, how she would love to see more females in key roles in the game and how Mansfield are on the up.
Odds correct as of 1200 BST on 11/04/19
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