Mansfield Town boss Nigel Clough reacts to Papa Johns Trophy defeat, the importance of game time and Anthony Hartigan injury blow

Clough made eight changes from the side who beat Gillingham at the weekend.

“Giving players minutes was the most important thing,” said Clough. “You saw Kieran Wallace and Quinny (Stephen Quinn) needing games, they were a little bit short of match practice.

“JJ (O’Toole) and Perchy (James Perch) haven’t started in the last couple of weeks.”

But it was not all good news with midfielder Anthony Hartigan being withdrawn on 30 minutes with an injury.

“He’s dislocated his shoulder for the second time,” said the gaffer. “We’ll have to see how it settles down, but I thought it was the only bad tackle in the game. It wasn’t even given as a foul.

“We’ve lost one of our best players for a few weeks. It’ll be a huge miss. It puts a little bit more responsibility on the other midfielders we have.

“Hartigan was improving game by game and his pass for the second goal on Saturday was outstanding.”

Stags head to Crewe at the weekend looking to cement their place in the top seven.

They travel full of confidence after winning their last two League Two away games.

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