Mansfield Town boss Nigel Clough brands suspended defenders' behaviour as 'infantile'

Mansfield Town boss Nigel Clough faces making major changes to his rock solid back four at Bradford City on Saturday after behaviour he described as 'infantile' sees centre halves John-Joe O'Toole and Oli Hawkins both suspended.
The melee at Newport begins which ended very badly for the Stags. Photo by Chris Holloway/The Bigger Picture.mediaThe melee at Newport begins which ended very badly for the Stags. Photo by Chris Holloway/The Bigger Picture.media
The melee at Newport begins which ended very badly for the Stags. Photo by Chris Holloway/The Bigger Picture.media

Hawkins instigated a fracas in Saturday's 1-1 draw at Newport County which saw O'Toole also pile in and Hawkins' 10th booking of the season has resulted in a two-game ban while O'Toole was shown a straight red and misses three games.

“Looking back at the incident I find it quite infantile really to get two 30-year-old centre halves behaving in that manner,” said Clough.

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“There was no need to get involved with anything at all with 17 minutes to go. It was very child-like really.

“The crowd were extremely quiet as they'd hardly had a shot on goal.

“The assistant on the far side was mainly responsible for the decision and he got it absolutely spot on.

“The only thing was another Newport lad went in initially, didn't help the situation, and he should have got booked, as should a couple of them for tackles on the day.

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“The knock-on effect is the back four that's been in place for the last good few games now and hasn't conceded in open play for five games will now be disrupted by their actions.”

Clough continued: “We knew when we got this squad in place from January there was bags of ability in it.

“So whether we are successful or not will probably be down to other factors like the ill discipline, which you saw on Saturday. It's how much people want to sacrifice for the team.”

Clough was straight in to see the referee at the end of the game but had no major issues over the cards or penalty kick.

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“He was very amenable,” he said. “We went through the major decisions.

“I had the disadvantage of not having seen the incidents again as our analyst is off on maternity leave at the moment. Normally I would get to see them on the laptop before I go in.

“He explained his view of them and the assistant explained how he saw the incident on the far side which resulted in JJ getting sent off and he was absolutely spot on in his interpretation of that.

“I just think Newport should have had a couple more bookings, but it's difficult when there's so many players to see everything.

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“The penalty – sometimes they're given and sometimes they're not. He said Oli Hawkins' arm was up, which it was. He thought it was at the side which it wasn't. It was more in front of his face.

“But we just felt a sense of injustice with the decisions coming close together and also us having a blatant penalty turned down earlier.”

The red card was the 11th of the fiery O'Toole's career and Clough said: “If anything at all, if you're going to get involved in that sort of thing, as John-Joe O'Toole did, I would have thought his first priority would have been to get his mate out of there.

“We sort that side of JJ's character at Burton at times as well. He has kept it in check. But there's always going to be these flashpoints when the red mist comes down.

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“You know he's that sort of player when you've been sent off 11 times in your career. It's not a one-off. But you don't have to accept it.

“Those involved will be disciplined and it will cost them some money.”

Clough is now weighing up his options for his defence as Stags head to Bradford on a 12-game unbeaten run.

“We never banked on losing two centre halves at the same time,” he said.

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“We knew Oli Hawkins would probably get his 10th booking at some point and miss two game.

“But to lose O'Toole at the same time is a blow.

“We do have Faz Rawson, who's been on the bench, and we have one or two other options as well as well as options with formations all the time.

“Stephen McLaughlin has played centre half. Elliott Hewitt and Keiron Wallace have played centre half and then there's James Perch, though it might be too much to throw him in there.

“We have options though but they just might not be as solid as the two that have been playing, only conceding a free kick and a penalty in five games.

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“It was looking a pretty solid unit back there which is now going to be disrupted.

“Everything is on the table looking towards Bradford and next week. We will see how we go.

“But we have plenty of other options including changing formation, which we did again on Saturday.”