Mansfield Town boss Clough wants a break as three big decisions go against his side in Bolton Wanderers defeat
Mansfield Town manager Nigel Clough was proud of his side's efforts in adversity in tonight's 1-0 home defeat by Bolton Wanderers
Already without several key injured players and having played 120 minutes at the weekend in the FA Cup, Stags had to play for 78 minutes with 10 men tonight after Rhys Oates was shown a straight red card for his challenge on Ethan Erhahon.
But Clough felt the dismissal was harsh and was also unhappy with a handball for the winning Bolton goal and then a handball at the end that saw Stags' penalty appeals turned down,
“It was an incredible effort by the players after going down to 10 men so early in such unfortunate circumstances,” said Clough.
“Rhys had slipped and you would hope there was a modicum of understanding from the officials as there was no intent and absolutely no malice there.
“When your feet go from under you, obviously your feet will come up and your studs will come up. He caught the lad but with no intent whatsoever.
“I thought it was a yellow card, get on with the game, but he has interpreted it as a red.
“The two major decisions in the game, that and the late penalty appeal, have both gone against us.
“When you see seven or eight players' hands go up and the reaction of the Bolton players as well I think you've got a pretty good idea it's a penalty.
“We are unbelievably disappointed it wasn't given.”
He continued: “They scored a bit of a fortunate goal as it hit the lad's hand but it was deemed accidental – a bit like Rhys' challenge. But he couldn't give a foul for it.
“So I think it was probably our best performance of the season in those circumstances after playing 120 minutes on Saturday and I am very enthused tonight - the lads were absolutely superb.
“Our organisation, our communication and our work rate were excellent.
“I thought it had been very even at 11 v 11 and we then coped admirably after that for the rest of the game against a team of Bolton's quality.
“If we'd had that penalty at the end we might have got a deserved point.
“We knew if we could keep it to a single goal then late on anything could happen.”
Mansfield continue a tough schedule at AFC Wimbledon on Saturday and Clough said: “We will be without Rhys now for three matches, which will be a huge miss for us, especially with the others missing and I can't see too many coming back.
“That was a bare 18 tonight so we will get one of the young lads on the bench on Saturday.
“We can't get a break in the league right now - and we would just like the correct decisions made as well as a break of the ball in the box.”