Depleted Mansfield Town prepare for ‘six point’ showdown with in-form Burton Albion
Mansfield Town boss Nigel Clough takes his struggling and depleted side back to his former club Burton Albion on Saturday for what looks to be a relegation 'six-pointer'
Stags are sliding down the table after 10 games without a win while the revived Brewers are in the relegation spots just six points below but on a superb run of form with ony one defeat in their last nine games.
“They have two key things we haven't got – confidence and momentum, which are very important going into the last two or three months of the season,” said Clough, who has 11 first team players out injured and may not be able to fill the bench at Burton.
“Results they have had lately will give them a massive boost.
“But we need to do our stuff and, first and foremost, make no mistakes.
“Like every game we want to win, but if we could get out of there with a 0-0 it would be a good result. We have to be realistic about what options we have.
“The players just need to keep doing the things we're asking them to do and think back to why we were doing so well earlier in the season and what got us those victories.
“A clean sheet is what we are absolutely desperate for, but we are struggling to achieve one at the moment. It would give us a platform to move forward from there.”
He added: “Over this run we should have picked up more points than we have. We should have had draws in many rather than defeats.
“Key moments in games are not going our way and we have to turn them our way.
“It is a perfect storm at times in things going against us and I don't think it will continue.
“But I think this is pretty much where we expected to be - on 38 points and only needing three or four victories from the last 14 games. Most people would have expected that.
“How we feel now is only because we managed some extremes of wins and losses and some unbelievably good runs. Because those results have not been spread out it makes it look a lot more severe than it is.
“It's the way the results have gone in the last 10 games and the injuries that we have had.
“If you had said at the start of the season we would be level with Rotherham and above Peterborough most people would have settled for that as they were two teams expected to be in the top six or seven.”
With Clough's rich history at Burton, he admitted he always enjoys going back there
“Every time we go there or drive past, we are very proud of the Perelli Stadium and how it came about and also in us playing a part in moving the club up from the Dr Martens League in 1998 to the Championship,” he said.
“They are doing all they can to survive in League One and have new owners for the first time in 30-odd years.”