EXPERIENCING THE NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE

For the first time in the Bulls’ history, they found difficulty in adapting to their new league despite a promising start to the 2018/19 campaign.

The ray of sunshine in the first half of their season was another impressive FA Cup run which ended at a much higher side in Kettering Town, who could only just edge past the Bulls with a 2-1 win despite a very nervy ending.

Manager Rudy Funk was sacked in February 2019 with the AFC bottom of the pile, and new boss Mark Ward steered his side to safety by 15 points, but ground grading issues meant that the club would be playing Step 5 football once more which resulted in manager Mark Ward stepping down from his role.

Ward was then replaced at the start of the 2019/20 season by Matt Chatfield who quickly went to work transforming the club, securing six consecutive home wins in his opening season and signing the likes leading goal-scorer Ross Duggan before the Covid-19 pandemic put a halt to proceedings with the NCEL declaring the season null and void

The Bulls once again made a positive start to the 20/21 season opening their account with a strong 3-1 FA Cup victory against Gainsborough Trinity under the lights at the Forest Town Arena with the Bulls only managing to play 9 league games, with the pandemic in full swing the season ended and was declared curtailed.

At the start of the 21/22 season u21 Boss and club captain Phil Buxton was announced as the new AFC Mansfield Boss after Chatfield resigned as Boss to take up a new role elsewhere.

In 2022 founder Andrew Saunders announced that he was leaving the club to pursue a new opportunity. The Bulls were sold to NEFA, an independent football academy headed up by Spencer Fearn and Ryan McKnight. In November 2022 Spencer Fearn transferred his shares to long time director and Bulls Fan Mike Abbs.