It’s fine to dream of another promotion says Mansfield Town boss Nigel Clough, but it has to be tempered with reality

But he warned that dreaming needed to be tempered with the reality of the size of opposition in League One, despite sitting third after five straight wins ahead of Saturday's visit of Stevenage.

Clough said everyone should enjoy riding the crest of a wave but be aware a rough spell could be round the corner at any moment.

“There is nothing wrong with dreaming,” he said ahead of games against Stevenage at home on Saturday and Wigan Athletic away on Tuesday.

“But it has to be tempered with the thought that we are up against clubs like Birmingham, Wrexham, Stockport, Charlton and other ex-Premier League clubs. Over 46 games we will see where we are.

“It's lovely of the older supporters to compare now with 1976 with us now being in our highest league position for 47 years.

“Everyone is riding the wave and enjoying it – and they should. You don't know what's going to happen around the corner so let's enjoy it while it's there.

“I just want us to establish ourselves as a League One club first and foremost.

“That could be fifth from bottom or sixth from top.

“After being a League Two club for 20-odd years, that is the next stage now. Having not stayed in this league for 35 years I don't think that is unrealistic or tempering expectations too much.

“It was about time we got up here and the supporters deserve it. I think they are enjoying it.

On the current run of results, he said: “We can't praise the players highly enough and we just have to keep it going.

“It has been an incredible effort. The consistency levels have been extremely high.

“The bottom line is the work rate. In football all the best teams are the most hard-working teams, plus if you can play a bit of football on top of that.

“You need a desire not to lose and from there to then go on and win.

“If you get a group with that mentality you have a chance.

“I am sure we will have setbacks – no one is getting carried away. We are only nine games and less than 20 per cent into the season with some tough fixtures round the corner.

“But let's keep it going while we can.

“It's been great to get so many points on the board this early as we will need them later on in the season.”

He continued: “The vast majority of teams go through a rough spell. We have just won five on the spin but that could be reversed and we lose four or five at some stage.

“We wanted to start solidly to get confidence we could compete at this level.

“But we are way ahead of where we anticipated we'd be at this stage. If you had said at the start of the season that by now we'd have 20 points I'd have laughed.

“Momentum can take you a long way and we are continuing in the same vein as we did last season.

“But it does raise the expectation levels as well and we have to deal with that.”