Boss Nigel Clough was pleased to see his young talent play a ‘big part’ in Mansfield’s two goals against Alfreton Town this evening.
The Stags were trailing heading into the final ten minutes of the game, but late efforts by Nathan Caine and Tyrese Sinclair ensured victory in the friendly at the Impact Arena.
The manager, reflecting on a ‘fully-deserved’ win, said: “When you miss a couple of chances from two or three yards out like we did, you think you’re not going to score, but we got a couple of very good goals.
“It [win] was fully deserved on the night with the chances that we created. It was nice to get the young lads on, they were a big part in us getting those goals.
“With the build-up play [for Caine’s goal], Jack Deakin was involved, Taylor Anderson, then Nathan Caine gets in at the far post with a great header.
“That was the biggest thing, getting the first teamers through 75 minutes, then the young lads really give you a boost when they come on.
“Ty [Sinclair] was lively tonight and it was interesting to see him in a different formation, playing wide rather than through the middle.
“We wanted to change it up a little bit and see; we sometimes play in the diamond with one in the hole. That’s what we’ll be doing over the next few weeks, looking at different things.”
The boss says that, although he is happy to see his side win, the players’ ‘work-rate’ is more important at this stage of pre-season.
“It’s the work-rate we’re looking for rather than the results. You never want to lose, even in pre-season, so it was nice to score a couple of goals.
“But it was about the work-rate and getting minutes into the players. Ty had 90 minutes, Keaton Ward and James Clarke, people like that.
“That’s what we look at more than the results, but it’s always nice to win.”
There was also an injury update from Nigel Clough ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Hull City.
“With us having the game at Hull tomorrow, that team gets picked first, then we worked backwards.
“Unfortunately we lost Harry Charsley and George Lapslie, then Jason Law at half-time aggravated his ankle injury.
“Harry Charsley has a thigh injury that he picked up last week. We thought it was going to be okay, but he felt it doing a bit of running today.
“George Lapslie is a precaution as his knee has been a bit sore over the last few days. So he’ll have the weekend off to rest.”
iFollow Stags subscribers can watch the manager’s interview in full by logging into mansfieldtown.net/ifollow tomorrow.
