Fine first two years for Nigel Clough as Mansfield Town boss as they edge closer to ultimate aim

“It has gone very quickly,” he smiled.

“As you get older life does seem to go a lot quicker, but the last two years certainly seem to have sped along.

“There have been a lot of changes and though we haven't achieved our aim yet of getting the club back into League One, which we've not been in for many years, I think we are getting close.

“The main thing is we've gone from being a bottom six side to being a top six or seven side in that time and viewed as one of the best sides in the league. We have got to then turn that into our ultimate aim.

“We have good players, good recruitment and one of the most important factors is the connection we have with our supporters. It has brought us all together as one club.

“We see it here and with our travelling support and it's that which can make the difference.

“We try to play as entertainingly as we can. We try to go forward and score goals. That has been our intention for the last couple of years and I think is our best route to success.”

Clough now wants to get back to winning ways after only one point from the last nine in League Two as Stags return from Saturday's FA Cup trip to Barrow to face rivals Bradford City on Tuesday.

“It would be nice to go into it in the hat for the next round,” he said.

“It will be close to a full house. It's the one that was cancelled after the sad death of the Queen and is one that gives us an opportunity to get back to playing and getting that home form back.

“We're not far off. You saw on Saturday, to be ahead twice playing one of the best sides in the league and for an hour 11 v 11 I thought it was a cracking game. We were right in the mix.

“We created as much as them if not more and I would have fancied us to get a goal back in the last half hour the way the game was going had we not gone down to 10 men.

“It was that sort of crazy game. It could have been 4-4.”