Race begins for Stags’ manager’s job

With the dust barely settled on Paul Cox’s departure as Mansfield Town boss on Friday, the rumour mill is inevitably going into overdrive as to who might be his successor.

Caretaker boss Adam Murray, who was Cox’s assistant, did his own chances no harm with Saturday’s 1-0 win over Plymouth with attractive passing football.

Former Doncaster boss Dave Penney, currently assistant at Southend United, was linked with the club before Cox and, as a friend of chairman John Radford, is inevitably being spoken of again.

Sky Sport today reported that former Stags midfielder Curtis Woodhouse, who combined his footballing career with one as a professional boxer while at Mansfield, has applied for the job.

The former Sheffield United and Birmingham City midfielder is currently in charge at Northern Premier League Division One South club Goole Town,

He made more than 350 senior appearances in his career and played 12 times for Mansfield in 2009.

Three other former Stags players, Ian Baraclough, Greg Fee and Jon Schofield, are also been said to be interested in a return to take over the hot seat.

Baraclough, a silky midfield player who moved on to have a great career at Notts County and QPR, went on to management at Scunthorpe in the Championship where he ended his playing days after over 550 appearances.

While with the Iron, he was assistant manager when getting promoted from League One.

More recently he has achieved great success with Sligo Rovers, winning the club the Irish Premier league title for the first time in 35 years.

They also won the FAI Cup, their premier cup competition, and the Setanta Cup for the first time in the club’s history, which is the All-Ireland Cup, including Northern Irish clubs.

Baraclough confirmed his interest, saying: “As a former player who had a good relationship with the supporters, I would love the chance to continue my successes at Field Mill.”

Centre half Fee made 54 appearances for Stags between 1990-93 and has managed at Gainsborough Trinity and Boston United while midfielder Schofield played 86 times for Mansfield between 1997-99 and has managerial experience at Lincoln City while also being assistant and caretaker boss in spells at Cheltenham, Walsall and Gillingham.