Boss Nigel Clough demands reaction to Saturday’s loss at bottom club when Crawley Town come to town

But Clough admitted it was hard to know which Crawley would turn up, despite their lowly league position.

“We expect anything from Crawley tomorrow,” he said.

“They have shown that the last couple of seasons.

“We are capable of beating them 3-0 and they are capable of beating us 3-0.

“Last season they came to play us with everyone thinking it would be a rollover and they went 4-0 up against us when we were going for automatic promotion.

“I think that sums them up.

“On their day, Crawley are as dangerous as anybody.

“I said I thought last Saturday would be our hardest game of the season, just because of the way it fell and Cambridge playing so well the game before.

“It is just as hard playing Cambridge, Crawley and Shrewsbury as it is playing Birmingham, Wrexham and Stockport. That's how even the league is this season.

“It is impossible to plan for and you just have to to anticipate the side you're playing are going to be at their best and plan how to deal with it.

“If we are anywhere near our best we know we can compete.

“I think the fact we are sitting here in late January talking about only two poor performances – one of which we won – does show a very high level of consistency in our first season back at this level.”

Conceding two early goals left Stags with a mountain to climb at Cambridge last weekend and Clough said: “I now want to see a positive reaction to show it was hopefully a one-off as we haven't dipped too often this season or last.

“We want a good reaction to stop this run of defeats. You need to do the basics well to win any game of football.

“Only a couple of performances stand out as poor this season – Saturday at Cambridge and Northampton away.

“Somehow we got a win we didn't really deserve at Northampton thanks largely to a very good goalkeeping display. “But on Saturday we were punished very early on and found it difficult to get back into the game.

“We nearly did it, so I suppose there is some credit due for that. But the way we defended was nothing like we had done in recent weeks.

“You never see these days coming – very few players came out of it with any credit.

“This happens to every team throughout the season – and more than once. Your success will be defined on how many times it does happen. You just try to limit them.”

Striker Lee Gregory was a second half sub on Saturday but is struggling with an injury.

Jordan Bowery, Matt Craig, Frazer Blake-Tracy and Baily Cargill have all been on the treatment table too and Clough said: “We will see how Lee Gregory's knee is and how he feels.

“We are very conscious we have 20-odd games to go and the last thing we want to do is lose him for a large proportion of those. If he is okay he will be involved.

“We are hoping Jordan will be all right. He twisted his ankle in training, had it strapped up and tried a bit of training on Friday but wasn't comfortable enough. He should be okay providing he gets through training.

“Matty's hamstring was still a bit tight this morning so we will assess him before the game.

“Frazer's was a bit of fatigue as much as anything and we will see how much he can train before we make a decision. But we do have Stephen McLaughlin if not.

“Baily should be all right as well and will come back in.”

On striker Rhys Oates' recovery from a knee injection, he added: “Rhys is at the early stages of coming back in after his injection.

“He is nowhere near playing and we will see how his knee settles down after the injection and how much he steps up his workload on the grass outside this week.”