Right thing to let Harry Charsley move on to Port Vale says Mansfield Town boss Nigel Clough

Charsley was allowed to join League Two rivals Port Vale for an undisclosed fee less than two weeks after his brace of goals shot down Walsall 2-0 after he came on from the subs bench.

“It was such a difficult one – as tough a decision as we've had,” said Clough.

“He came to see us a couple of weeks ago. He's only started 10 league games this season and, aged 25, and said 'I'm of contract this summer so could I look at the option of going out on loan and playing some games?'

“We said we'd think about it and we'd see how we were injury-wise and numbers.

“But Harry is such an honest, genuine lad, it was one of those cases where it would have been very, very selfish if we'd told him to stay around and be part of what we're trying to do and you might get on for 20 minutes or half an hour here and there and you might get a couple of starts.

“Sometimes you've got to be fair.

"It would have been keeping an unhappy player and, with one as genuine as he is, we didn't want to do.

“I think it was fair all round. We got a reasonable offer from Port Vale to go on a permanent and we gave him the choice.

“He goes with our very best wishes.

"He has been an absolute pleasure to work with over the last 12 months or so.”

The 25-year-old made 57 starts and 19 appearances from the substitutes’ bench for the Stags since signing in January 2020 following the expiration of his contract at Everton.

This season has seen Charsley feature 16 times for Stags.