Bridging the Gap Part Three

With a much greater loss than expected on its first season Mansfield Marksman responded by moving home games away from Field Mill. The club decided that hiring the soccer ground for home games with attendances in the hundreds was no longer cost effective.
In March 1986 the club moved operations to Alfreton Town FC, playing home games at the soccer club's North Street ground. Two years later the club moved to Kirkby in Ashfield to play at Sutton Town's ground. The final move for this nomadic club came in June 1989 when Nottingham's Harvey Hadden Stadium became their home ground. This move caused a boardroom split, the loss of sponsorship by Mansfield Brewery, and a change of name to Nottingham City.
For the next four years the club struggled both on and off the field. On the field Nottingham only won seven games over that period while attendances, at home games, were often less than 300. In the 1992/93 season Nottingham finished bottom of the Third Division. The Rugby Football League decided that it wanted to reduce the number of professional clubs and so Nottingham City, along with Blackpool Gladiators and Chorley Borough, were relegated to the National Conference League. After once season in the Conference Nottingham resigned from the League and went out of existence.

An article about Mansfield Marksman will appear in the November edition of Forty-20 Magazine