'They told me I wouldn't survive in football but 14 years later I'm still here'

Daily Mirror

a day ago

Husband and wife John and Carolyn Radford have nurtured one of English football's steadiest success stories - no Hollywood showbiz, no firing managers every five minutes, just putting unfashionable Mansfield Town on the map
She is the first lady of Mansfield who has presided over two promotions, a Wembley play-off final and English football's fourth longest-serving manager.
Now she is having a new stand, padel courts, bars and restaurants built at the One Call stadium. Soon it will be a ground fit for a Stag party every week. And as the Lionesses prepare for their defence of England's Euros crown in Switzerland, she remains a shining light for girl power in boardrooms where women are still hopelessly outnumbered by men in suits.
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When Carolyn Radford was appointed chief executive at Mansfield back in 2011 aged 29, social media's sneering court of public opinion dismissed her recruitment as a 'publicity stunt.'
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She laughs at the cheap shot now. 'Some publicity stunt,' giggled Radford on a Zoom call from Mansfield's windswept training ground. 'I wonder if they think running around after my three sons at home is a publicity stunt as well.'
Apologies to double Olympic gold medallist and queen of the pool Rebecca Adlington, another proud daughter of the Nottinghamshire hinterlands, but Radford and her husband John, the owner and insurance tycoon who lifted his home-town club out of the non-League long grass, are making the biggest splash in Mansfield now.
Like Oldham's Frank and Judith Rothwell, they are the husband-and-wife double act at the sharp end of an EFL operation. Sadly, Radford does not hear many more female voices in boardrooms than she first observed when Mansfield were on their uppers 15 years ago.
These days, the barbs are not as direct as comedians Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse's reference point for sexists, the sketch with dinosaur pundits telling a female interviewer: 'Where's the bloke, love? Two sugars, please.'
But apart from the likes of West Ham baroness Karen Brady, Bolton chairman Sharon Britton and Leicester CEO Susan Whelan, women at English football's top tables are still thin on the ground.
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'Sometimes it's still a bit awkward, but we have come a long way in women's football, in terms of our visibility in the game,' she said. "It's been a male-dominated industry for 150 years and you have to learn to navigate your way through it.
'For a husband-and-wife team maybe it's a different dynamic. For us there's no separation. Business and family are always combined, I've got a voice here and if things go wrong it's always my fault! The Lionesses winning the Euros three years ago was massive and, without wanting to be the kiss of death, I wish them the very best of luck in Switzerland because of what they can do for women and girls in football as a whole.
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'We need to celebrate the women who are out there driving the game forward, especially if they are juggling other parts of their lives, and we have each other's backs. I don't have a perfect recipe - there are days when one of the children is sick, for instance, and there aren't enough hours in the day to cope with it all.
'But I'm proud of the fact we have had the same manager for nearly five years. Nigel and his staff are so easy to work with, and continuity has its virtues. I'm glad we are not one of these clubs who sack the manager every few months because starting all over again means a new voice, a new culture, new methods… it must be like getting remarried.'
Radford, now 43, has seen gates double at Field Mill on her watch and the fan zone, with its marquee, DJ, music and family atmosphere, has improved the matchday experience markedly.
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'Mansfield is a close-knit community and I wanted to reflect that in our demographics on match days,' she said. 'You've got to be so careful when you are cultivating a football club because it matters to so many people. It's brilliant to put them on the map but a it's not a plaything.
'It takes over your whole life and consumes you, but you also have to enjoy it. But it's still a fantastic industry to work in. You keep smiling, you keep being resilient - there is no set formula, it's not like teaching GCSE maths.'