Mansfield Town boss proud of hard-earned overdue win against Bolton Wanderers

Stephen McLaughlin and Lee Gregory put Stags two up before Aaron Collins replied just before the break.

Stags then had to dig deep in a one-sided second half to make it a hard-earned winning start to 2025.

“To win three out of four from the Christmas period is a brilliant return,” smiled Clough

“Now we just want to get something from Stockport on Saturday to finish it off.

“We can't start the New Year off any better than that.

“It was incredibly hard work today and an immense effort by the players who were out there today, subs as well – everybody contributed.

“We had to sit in and defend a bit second half which is not generally how we like to do it. But we didn't have much choice today.

“We left two up as long as we could, but when we changed it I thought we looked pretty solid. All credit to the incredible work rate.

“Bolton are exceptionally good going forward.

“They are one of the best footballing sides in the league.

“It was too open early on and could have been 2-2 after 15 minutes – it was a proper game all the way through.”

Stags had twice come close to beating Bolton this season so Clough felt today's result was overdue.

“We have played them three times this season now and we are entitled to win one with the three performances we have put in,” he said.

“We have had three very good games against them. We lost to them on penalties in the cup, were winning 1-0 up there until Hiram Boateng got sent off, so we were due a result against them.”

On the goals, he said: “We thought Stephen McLaughlin had taken too long, but he composed himself and it was a lovely strike.

“You miss your leading scorer and someone of Lee Gregory's quality.

“He's been out seven or eight games but you see what he did for that second goal today that ultimately got us the three points – you look back at the games we have lost and he could have done that in any one of those if he had been available.”

Clough made six changes to the side and also made good use of his subs today.

“It was all about fresh legs today when you're playing your third game in six days you can't ask too many to do that,” he said.

“It's not an 11 man game any more, it's a 20 man squad game.”