Clough congratulations for promoted Cheltenham Town

Players and fans of Cheltenham Town celebrate their side's victory outside the ground after gaining promotion to the Sky Bet League One.

Clough now hopes his own side can grown and develop like the Robins have in recent years to put this season's relegation fight behind them and compete at the other end of the table.

“Cheltenham have been building to this point for a season or two,” he said.

“They got pretty close in the play-offs last year and have since been a bit more consistent.

“A team like that just grows and improves.

“When you are in that top six or seven for a season or two you keep improving one or two players each time and the belief grows that you can do it. They were very worthy winners of promotion.”

Now Clough wants Stags to follow in Cheltenham's footsteps.

“That's our hope,” he said. “That is stage one completed in terms of staying up.

“We no longer have that spectre of relegation hanging over us, which it has for most of the season.

“If you don't win any of your first 14 games there is a chance you're going to go down.

“From that run of five straight wins, from that point on, I think we felt we were going to stay up which was very important.

“So it's stage one completed and now we start building for stage two and competing and challenging next year.”