Last year around this time I was bored and began digging through the various English Football leagues seeing what there was to see.

While living in Sweden I followed the Euro leagues closely, but having moved back almost twenty years ago I've lost a bit of connection with all of that.

However I found myself looking at the EFL league two. That is England's 4th tier soccer.

I saw Wrexham and was reminded of the whole Hollywood actor connection and the "docu series" . For some reason this turned me off from cheering for them given the attention they were getting and why they were getting it.

I decided to randomly pick a team to cheer for hoping they would do well and hopefully earn promotion.

My reasons initially were silly. I found a team whose colors were yellow and blue which reminded me of Sweden where I lived fifteen years and I've recently been following the Rams again due to Puka Nacua. I also am a big Staggies fan (Ross County Scottish Premiership) who I watched go from the Highland Leagues all the way to the Scottish Premiere League.

This led me to Mansfield Town. At the time I picked them to be the team I followed they had won 2 matches tied 8 and only lost once.

Wrexham of course was getting all the attention and nobody else was getting a fraction of the same.

Regardless each week I would check results and I actually was able to watch a couple matches. What made it really enjoyable was that although Wrexham was doing well and getting all this attention, Mansfield Town was also doing really well.

Fast forward to April 2024 and voila the top three EFL league two teams automatically got promoted to EFL league one. Stockport, Wrexham and Mansfield

So as you can imagine my interest has been increased and I've been following Mansfield even more than last season. I was hoping they would do well enough to avoid hanging out at the relegation line in order to continue to develop as a club.

With the first quarter of the season over, both Wrexham and Mansfield are neck and neck vying for an auto qualifier for the EFL Championship division just below Premiere League. It is amazing how both of these clubs are moving quickly forward.

However it is a long season and much can happen to change things. What I can say is I look forward to November 9th not just because of BYU v Utah, but because Mansfield Town is playing against Wrexham. If Mansfield wins they will be two points ahead of Wrexham with a game in hand. Depending on what happens with Stockport vs Wycombe on Nov 2, Mansfield could end up in second place and in the auto promotion spot.

What a real cool thing that could be. The town itself is big enough and there are resources enough for the club to expand and adjust to the larger leagues, there just needs to be a reason such as qualifying to play in said leagues. In any case that is my random soccer story.