Manager Nigel Clough offered his thoughts following Mansfield’s 1-0 loss to Northampton Town at Sixfields this evening.
Sam Hoskins put the hosts ahead from the penalty spot on 28 minutes before midfielder Stephen Quinn was shown a red card on 66 minutes.
The gaffer told iFollow Stags after the game: “[The performance was] very difficult to assess when you’ve got nine players who couldn’t start the game tonight.
“There was no lack of fight, especially when we went to ten men.
“There were four or five situations in the first-half where we had to do better to get a goal.
“We looked as though we hadn’t played for ten days, a little bit rusty but we had enough chances and situations [to score].”
“To have nine first-teamers unavailable to start tonight, coming to one of our promotion rivals, made it tough.
“We’ve got no choice but to get through it. We want to be in contention once we get a few [players] back.
“I think to have won four out of five [games] as we had with the injuries was remarkable. We’ve got to hang on in there.”
The manager addressed the decision to send Quinn off in the second half: “The only problem is that there was a foul three seconds before it, which is [the reason for] Stephen Quinn’s reaction, but no excuse for it still.
“It’s more [disappointing to lose him] for the next three games when we’re as short as we are, we’ve no [Anthony] Hartigan, no [Louis] Reed, no [George] Maris. We’re a little bit light in midfield so we’ll have to shuffle it around for Saturday.”
The Stags face a trip to Stockport County this Saturday. Nigel provided an injury update on the squad.
“Louis Reed is not too far away. Elliott Hewitt is not too far away. Macca [Stephen McLaughlin] we were hoping to get 25 minutes of [in the game against Northampton] with a view to starting on Saturday.
“He got a kick right on the sore part of his ankle again. The lad caught him a little bit late and unfortunately he’s [McLaughlin] had to come off.
“We’ll involve the youth team lads again [on Saturday], [there’s] nothing we can do but wait for them [the aforementioned first team players] to get fit.”
