Clough delighted with players as injury-hit Mansfield Town progress in the FA Cup

A 2-2 draw at Accrington Stanley went all the way to penalties, where goalkeeper Owen Mason made three superb saves to send Mansfield through.

And Clough felt that having struggled to even get a fit side together at all, to go through was testament to the effort put in by those who did feature.

He said: “It was an incredible effort. I was near some of our fans when Owen made some of his penalty saves and you can see what it means – to come up here in these conditions, we could have done with going and thanking every single one of them individually.

"We weren’t too bad in the first-half although conceded a poor goal. But from half-time onwards I thought we were good value and gave absolutely everything and I’m delighted we’re through.

"The starting ten picked themselves given the injuries and knocks to other players, so we tried to fit the formation around those ten but we didn’t really get going. So we changed it a bit at half-time.

"We got the ball forward and won a lot of corners in the first ten or 15 minutes, scored the important equaliser from one of them, but I think right from kick-off it set the tone for the second-half.

"Going into extra-time wasn’t ideal with the players we’ve already got out injured and the players that were struggling – a couple more got whacks in the extra-time period too.

"But great credit to every single player who showed great character, none more so than Owen Mason because their second goal slipped out of his grasp in difficult conditions, so to redeem himself with three magnificent penalty saves got us through.”

Clough added that the Stags’ current injury list made selection tricky, and which substitutions to make even trickier.

He said: “Picking a starting line-up is unbelievably challenging at the moment. There were nine not with us, including Liam Roberts who had a rib injury from Cardiff last week – it’s not a resting situation or anything like that, he is injured. As are the other eight, as well as the three that couldn’t start in Lucas Akins, Elliott Hewitt and Will Evans, so you just do your best around that.

"And when you’ve got 12 senior players who can’t start, you’ve got to show a lot of character to get a result. I think we’d have taken penalties at most points during the game today, even before, but we had to work incredibly hard to get to that point.”

On Mason’s heroics, Clough added: “They were incredible saves, not run of the mill, and saved the lads having to take the last two. Everyone is delighted for him.”