“It gives you more options!” Mansfield Town boss Nigel Clough welcomes five substitutes rule

Nigel Clough has welcomed the option of using up to as many as five substitutes in a league match.

Mansfield Town and Colchester United will be the first clubs allowed to do just that this season when they meet at One Call Stadium tomorrow (KO 7pm).

Yesterday the EFL announced the rule change, allowing teams to make two additional substitutions, which comes into effect from noon tomorrow.

"It gives you more options on the day," Clough said.

"I think it will be a bit of a luxury and probably suit the teams who are 2-0 or 3-0 up with 10-15 minutes to go. They can use that as a chance to rest players.

"I'm not sure we'll have that luxury too many times."

However, Clough does believe that the new ruling will also allow managers to throw a little more caution to the wind.

"When you've made your three substitutions after 70-75 minutes and somebody gets injured, you now have that spare one or two that really helps," he added.

"Normally if you make two subs you're a little bit reluctant to make that third one in case you get an injury.

"It seems to make sense and probably should have been in place from the start of the season."

The rule change does not allow managers to run down the clock by making five substitutions on separate occasions as those changes must be condensed into up to three different substitutions.

However, there's nothing to stop the dug-out making sweeping changes if things are n't going to plan.

"I think a few managers, probably including myself, would like to change five or six at half time sometimes, you can now," Clough said with a smile."It'll be interesting to see if anybody does that.

"If there's a particular department in the team that isn't performing at half time you have the opportunity to replace them all."

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