"I wish there was some fans coming in now!" Nigel Clough welcomes plans for Mansfield Town supporters to return

Mansfield Town manager Nigel Clough has welcomed plans to get fans back into elite sport.

The Stags – like all clubs from the Premier League down to the National League North and South – have been playing behind closed doors so far this campaign due to ongoing Covid-19 restrictions.

However, it has been reported that the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport have submitted proposals to the Government to allow some supporters back into stadiums as early as next month.

To enforce social distancing rules, the number of people allowed to attend games would be limited.

But Clough - who noted Northern Ireland used a disinfecting pod to allow 1,060 supporters into the national stadium to watch their Euro play-off against Slovakia last week - would love to have fans back in the One Call Stadium stands.

"It'd be great," he said. "I think it'd be on a percentage basis - there won't be full houses or anything - but to get some crowds back in would be great."I think it was 1,000 in Northern Ireland. Just anybody in the stadium at all will certainly help."

The power to influence a game of football from the stands can be immense, but until supporters can return Clough says the impetus is on his squad to set the tone.

"It is very unusual. It's got a pre-season feel about it," the manager said about playing in eerily silent stadiums.

"The onus is on the players to try and generate some sort of atmosphere within the game.

"You can't generate crowd atmosphere but you can generate that sort of competitiveness within the game, which is absolutely necessary."

Clough will take charge of his first home game as Stags boss tomorrow night as Colchester United are the visitors to One Call Stadium (KO 7pm).

His only previous memory of the ground was masterminding a 2-1 victory with Burton Albion on their way to winning the Conference title in 2009.

But the noise around the place made a lasting impression on the new boss.

"I remember there being a great atmosphere," Clough added.

"And that's the only regret, I wish there was some fans coming in now.

"It's difficult (as an away team at Mansfield). It's a partisan atmosphere, and you know in the home crowd get behind the team.

"A few good few thousand of them, it can be quite an intimidating place as well."

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