Mansfield Town boss Nigel Clough upset over late penalty decision at Grimsby Town

Jordan Bowery seemed to get goalside of his man on the bye-line and go down under a challenge.

“We saw Jordan get in front of the lad and go down,” said boss Clough.

“He is adamant it was a penalty and the lad who fouled him said it was a penalty. I don't think the referee was enough up with play, but it was a clear penalty.”

Bowery gave Stags a 39th minute lead but the Mariners levelled through George Lloyd just after the break, following up after Christy Pym had saved an Otis Khan penalty.

“The performance was good today. I thought we started the game well and controlled it throughout the first half, but just couldn't get through that first 15 minutes after half-time,” said Clough.

“I keep saying to the players they have to get through to the hour mark when you're 1-0 up, especially away from home.

“Then you can try to pick them off a bit and go for that second goal.

“I thought we weathered the storm then and had more situations in the last 20 minutes or so than they did – none more so than what we thought was a certain penalty in the 94th minute.

“It was a tale of two penalties and we should have done better with the rebound from their penalty, which was definitely a penalty too.

“But I thought our approach was positive throughout the game. We just couldn't manage to keep that clean sheet we've been searching for for three or four games.”

He added: “We got in some great positions, especially down the left and David Keillor-Dunn has got to produce a bit more on the road than he has. At home, no problem at all, but in the positions we're getting him into away he should be scoring a goal or making a chance. It's something he has got to work on.

“We wanted to try to win it without going gung-ho as they are dangerous on the break, especially when they have nothing to lose.

“We were creating chances right to the end if we get the penalty and win 2-1 everyone is ecstatic.

“We are going for wins every game. It didn't happen today but it wasn't for the lack of trying or going for it and it will be the same at Newport on Tuesday.”

Striker Rhys Oates was not on the bench after pulling up in the warm-up and there was no sign of Ollie Clarke and George Maris as Mansfield remain very short-handed.

“Rhys trained for 10 minutes yesterday and had a very stiff groin,” said Clough.

“He did the warm-up today but said he couldn't even go on for five or 10 minutes. So we will have to see how that settles down.

“Ollie has no chance, he is out for maybe a few weeks now. George Maris is in a similar position in that he has also not quite improved enough too.

“So it's still the eight unavailable to start a game which we've had now for about the last three months.”