Jordan Bowery hails Nigel Clough for helping him find his confidence - and dreams of Manchester United in next round of FA Cup

The former MK Dons man has had a tough start to life in a Mansfield Town shirt but played the full game of the FA Cup win over Dagenham.

And he now feels he is starting to believe in himself once again.

"The gaffer has come in – and fair play to Coops and his staff too – they’ve just given confidence to the lads,” he told the IFollow Stags.

“I feel as though I’m a confidence player and they’ve just put belief in me. I’m thankful for the gaffer for doing that, since he’s been here I’ve played every minute and he’s shown faith in me.

“I feel a lot more confident now and I think it shows with the rest of the lads. I feel like we’ve been a lot better since the gaffer’s come in; hopefully with this win we can kick on with the season.

"Everyone wants to get through to the third round with all the big teams coming in.

“It’s a good chance to showcase your talent, especially with the better teams, it’s just a bit disappointing there won’t be any fans to support us and do something for them because it would be a great day out for them.

“Manchester United would be my ideal draw – at Old Trafford – but we don’t know how that would go.

“It’s a good day out so I’d take anyone. We’ll take it game by game but United would be the one for me.”

Bowery also praised the spirit of Mansfield in battling back to get a tough but deserved win at the death.

"The first-half felt like it was 100 miles per hour,” he said.

“It was from their end to our end and it was tough but full credit to them [Dagenham] because they came and worked hard.

“They tested us at the start getting the goal but we responded well. We can’t live in disappointment like maybe we did weeks ago, but it’s positive that we dug in and got the win [in the] last minute."

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