'Delighted for him': Andy Garner reflects on his partnership and favourite memory with 'quality manager' Nigel Clough following club milestone
Andy Garner is ‘delighted’ to see Nigel Clough mark his name in the Mansfield Town history books.
Clough’s reliable right-hand man has praised his impressive new milestone and era at Mansfield Town.
Last month, Clough surpassed Ian Greaves’ record for the most league games overseen by a Stags manager. Now, the well-respected gaffer is celebrating his sixth year in charge at the One Call Stadium.
Over the years, the formidable duo of Clough and Garner have been together at Burton Albion, Derby County, Sheffield United and now in their long stretch at Mansfield Town.
Clough was appointed player-manager at Burton in 1998, which is when his famous legacy started to build. Garner had already joined the Brewers, having left former club Gresley Rovers a year prior.
After providing Burton with the foundations to leave the wilderness of non-league football behind, Clough and Garner made the move to Derby County in 2009.
The pair spent four years back at Garner’s old stomping ground before moving to Sheffield United.
“Derby was our first job after moving from Burton and it was incredible for me, having been a player there,” Garner said back in 2022.
“So that was one of my most disappointing days when we got the sack from there.
“We survived four years and it was incredibly hard. At the time they were massively over budget and just wanted to get the money down.
“The gaffer did that and got about £9 million off the wage bill. It took a long time to recruit players but we did get some fantastic players in. We thought we were about getting it right but unfortunately people above thought differently.”
After the Sheffield United move, a five-year returning spell to Burton followed, before the new chapter with Mansfield Town in 2020.
Since the start of their Derby County chapter, Clough and Garner have overseen almost 900 games together up until now, according to Transfermarkt data.
The duo have been part of the Stags furniture for six years now and have guided the club to improve season after season under their tenure.
Reflecting on his many years by Clough’s side and the manager’s new club record, Garner looked back at his favourite memory, as well as their recent side-line squabbling during the 4-1 win over Blackpool.
“It’s been hard and it’s getting harder as well, by the way,” Garner laughed. “We were moaning after 20 minutes, I’m having a go at him, he’s having a go at me. I think that’s an age thing maybe, I don’t know.
“But I’m delighted for him. He’s a quality manager and he deserves all the plaudits he gets. It’s a lot of games and he’s always done well at every club. I’m very proud of his record for him, let’s keep going.”
Garner looked back to Stags’ historic 2023/24 season and their 4-1 win away to MK Dons, which took them to the cusp of automatic promotion to League One.
“There are a lot of memories but still to this day, it’s MK Dons away for me. I’ll never forget it in my life,” Garner said.
“We had a nightmare, we had to win that game. They were absolutely flying at the time and we changed our system.
“They went 1-0 up and their centre-half put his foot on the ball on the half-way line, taking the mickey a little bit, and I genuinely believe that was the first time I heard our fans boo.
“We made a massive mistake – we made a formation mistake. But we changed it, went back to our normal formation, got back onto our normal game and then we went and battered them 4-1. It was a cracking game, I loved it.”
The MK Dons win propelled Stags into their next victory over Accrington Stanley, which was enough to see them into League One for the first time since 2002.