Manager Nigel Clough has praised the ‘momentous effort’ on show from his players in this afternoon’s 2-1 win away at Forest Green Rovers.
First-half goals from midfielders George Lapslie and Harry Charsley had the Stags in control at the break, and the amber and blue withstood late Forest Green pressure following an 84th minute Odin Bailey goal.
The boss says his charges ‘defended magnificently’ in Gloucestershire this afternoon.
“It was an absolutely momentous effort from the players today to see that through,” he told iFollow Stags. “We scored a couple of good goals in the first-half and I thought we could’ve had another one.
“Forest Green, who are third in the league, are always going to put you under pressure. We were a bit unfortunate with the goal as it came off Perchy’s [James Perch] head and dropped down to their lad.
“The last eight to ten minutes, when we were really under pressure, I thought we defended magnificently.
“Occasionally, you can coast through a game, getting two or three up, but when you’re desperate for your first league victory, that sort of effort is what you need.
“We had a couple of scares, but to get a result like that, you’re going to have to get away with a couple of balls across the box.
“I thought generally, we did restrict them to not too many chances. I thought Marek [Stech] did well when he was called upon, and everybody to a man defended as though their lives depended on it. That’s what we need to do.
“We made a couple of poor decisions on the ball when we had the opportunity to counter and Nicky Maynard doesn’t think he was offside for the third goal [that was disallowed] as well.
“Overall, with the three points and the effort that’s gone in today, it’s absolutely brilliant.”
Nigel Clough says that this week, which has seen the Stags win three consecutive away matches, will add ‘confidence and belief’ to the Mansfield Town ranks.
“We needed to do it [win a league game] as soon as possible. We were very close to doing it against Walsall and Bolton.
“That’s the difference today, we conceded in the last minute against Bolton and we didn’t today.
“That’s great for confidence and belief. I think the players will need some recovery as an awful lot of effort has gone in over the last two or three weeks.
“They need to recover ahead of Friday night now [against Colchester], but I think we go into it with a bit more confidence than we had at the start of the week.”
There was also an update on midfielder George Maris, who was replaced in the first-half due to an injury.
“He [Maris] got a whack in the ribs. He cleared the ball and then as he fell, the lad then caught him accidentally.
“Anybody who has a rib injury will tell you he is going to be pretty uncomfortable for the next few weeks.
“There is no treatment for it and nothing you can do, it’s just about time and seeing how it heals.
“It’s great to have Ollie Clarke back – to have him come on in the centre of midfield, it was a good option.”
iFollow Stags subscribers can watch Nigel Clough’s interview in full by logging into mansfieldtown.net/ifollow later today.
