David Flitcroft is the new manager of Mansfield Town

David Flitcroft, 44, has been prised away from promotion rivals Swindon Town as the Stags enter their final 12 matches of the season just two points outside the top three.
He will be trying to repeat his success of the 2014-15 season when he won promotion with Bury on the final day of the season.
But it was the previous campaign when he probably first came to the notice of Mansfield Town fans after masterminding an impressive performance in a 4-1 win at One Call Stadium in February 2014.
Flitcroft, who had been in charge for two months at Gigg Lane, led the Shakers away from the relegation zone that night as the visitors tore the Stags apart in the second half.
It was a terrific performance that had Flitcroft praising his players’ quality – and one that many Mansfield Town supporters still remember.

Bury, at one time among the favourites for relegation, eventually finished 12th and the following season won promotion on that dramatic final day.
Their eighth successive away win, 1-0 at Tranmere, took them to a club record points haul of 85 as they edged out Phil Brown’s Southend United, who had started the last match of the season two points clear of the Shakers in third.
In League One, Flitcroft’s Bury finished 16th the following season and he started the 2016-17 campaign well too, winning the manager of the month award for September after winning all five matches in the month.
However, an 11-match run without a victory followed and he parted company with Bury in November 2016 after 157 matches in charge.

The highly-rated boss, who was interviewed for the England Under-21 manager’s role, returned to football at relegated Swindon last June.
He has had an impressive nine months at the County Ground, winning half of his matches in charge and leading the Robins to seventh place – just three points behind the Stags.
Flitcroft oversaw Swindon doing the double over Mansfield Town as well – a narrow 1-0 home last month and a 3-1 victory at One Call Stadium in October – as he continued his success against the Stags as a manager.

His career in the dugout started midway through the 2006/07 season when he returned to Rochdale – having played 160 matches for the Dale – as assistant manager to Keith Hill.
He then followed Hill – who hit the national headlines recently with Rochdale’s FA Cup run – to Barnsley in 2011 and, when his mentor was dismissed, Flitcroft was eventually given the number one job on a full-time basis after a successful period as caretaker manager.
The rookie boss led the Tykes to safety in the Championship on the last day of the 2012/13 season thanks to a 2-2 draw at Huddersfield Town, but was dismissed six months later.

Flitcroft's appointment means the chance for the new boss to again manage the Stags' talisman this season - former Barnsley and Bury striker Danny Rose.
Flitcroft worked with the then young Rose at the Tykes and took him to Gigg Lane, before selling the forward to Mansfield two years ago.
Rose is now the Stags' leading scorer with 17 goals after a terrific season and Flitcroft said of the forward earlier this season: “I had a fantastic relationship with Danny.
"I brought him from Barnsley to Bury and then we sold him to Mansfield.
“With Danny, we were always just waiting for him to become a stature in the game and score goals and important goals. He is doing that this season.
“He plays with an energy and an octane so chances will comes to him. He is very infectious as a player and very infectious as a person.
“He is one of those players you want to have a very good career in the game. “He is a very good professional, he is always going to score goals.” 

Born in Bolton, the younger brother of former Blackburn Rovers player Garry Flitcroft, David Flitcroft began his playing career with Preston North End, making eight first-team appearances, before moving to Chester City as a 19-year-old.
In 187 appearances, Flitcroft scored 18 goals from midfield and helped Chester to promotion in 1994.
He rejected a new contract offer to join Rochdale in 1999, and in 160 appearances helped Dale to the Division Three play-offs in 2002 and the FA Cup fifth round the following season.
Flitcroft had a brief spell at Macclesfield Town before moving to Bury, where he made 122 appearances before ending his career – barring one apperarance while assistant manager with Rochdale - at non-league outfit Hyde United.

David Flitcroft has been described as a people person, never afraid to praise his players and a football manager who puts a a great emphasis on team spirit.
When he was appointed Swindon manager last summer, Flitcroft said: “In my life, not just football, I’ve always put substance and structure in front of style.
“We’ve got to be robust, we’ve got to have a team of characters that can dig in.
“I need players with that real winning mentality to win first before we show our inner qualities."
His chairman, Lee Power, said of his new manager last summer: ““We’re very similar people. We’re not from a privileged upbringing. We’ve had to go and work hard for what we’ve got.”

Earlier this season, Flitcroft told swindontownfc.co.uk: "The word philosophy is something that you want to bring in when you start out as a young manager or as a young coach.
“What I’ve done now is look at the way I want to do things and it is a methodology, there is a method to how we win games and you’ve got to be flexible and you’ve got to be adaptable in systems and certainly in tactics.
“But one thing that will run through everything we do will be a competitive streak to the football team and there will be front-foot performances, especially at home."

“We will go and attack teams.
“I love creating opportunities and I love getting the ball into wide areas, I love getting the ball forward and making sure that we create enough chances for the strikers to score goals.
“All of the teams I’ve ever had have always scored plenty of goals." 

The Stags’ new manager will obviously inherit a good team – one that is well established in the play-off places.
Now it is David Flitcroft’s job to get the best out of his new squad and guide Mansfield Town over the promotion finish line.