Busy weekend for Mansfield Town boss Nigel Clough as George Lapslie departure confirmed

But boss Nigel Clough expects to sign a replacement this weekend and add up to two more before the window closes as he strengthens for the final promotion push.

“We have agreed to sign a midflelder and I hope will be putting pen to paper shortly with hopefully one or two more to come,” he said.

The 25-year-old Lapslie – whose contract at One Call Stadium was set to expire at the end of this season – played 104 times for the Stags scoring 23 goals, originally joining on loan in October 2020 before making his stay at the club permanent in January 2021.

Clough was again left lamenting Stags' generosity as they gave Crewe a way back into today's 1-1 draw, having gone ahead through George Maris, who was later red-carded.

“Again I though 90 per cent of what we did today was good,” he said.

“We played well and created chances throughout the game again, only got the one goal and we were pressing when the sending off came.

“That set us back and it was more about securing the point, which we did relatively comfy.

“But once again we gave the ball away on the edge of our penalty area which has cost us the clean sheet.

“Hiram Boateng has seen Stephen McLaughlin do it, then George Maris do it twice in the last two games and today he gave the ball away - it's a different person every week.”

The Crewe equaliser saw Kelvin Mellor net a spectacular 30-yard effort and Clough said: “The ball just moved. Christy Pym said he hit it and it was going down one line then just swerved and gone in the other way.

“The way the balls are these days it just moved and wrong-footed him. But the ball should have been up the pitch with Rhys Oates chasing it.

“Their keeper made two unbelievable saves today, especially the second one. It just would not go in for us in the second half despite some great positions and some good moves.

“Over the course of the game we had more than enough to win as we did last week against Barrow and Walsall the week before.

“But we are contributing to our downfall with giving the ball away.”

On the red card, he said: “George was left in a position where he had to make a decision and I think the red card was 50-50. I'm not sure if the ball was already going through to Christy Pym.

“But I wasn't happy with the ball that got played leading up to it with James Perch trying a 70 yard diagonal ball.”

New signing Callum Johnson managed a good assist and Clough said: “I was very pleased with Callum's debut – it was an absolutely brilliant cross for the goal and I thought he defended well throughout.

“He got a little bit tired towards the end which was probably down to the move and the emotion of the week plus the eight or nine hour journey down from Ross County on Thursday.

“Kellan Gordon puts good crosses in but we just wanted an improvement defensively and a better balance. I think Kel is more of a forward player and we needed better defensive qualities without sacrificing too much going forward – you saw today Callum can do both.”