Mansfield Town facing big make or break Easter weekend

Two points outside the play-off places with a game in hand and eight games to go, Stags could still mathematically scrape into the top three automatic places or plummet into mid-table obscurity.

They head for Swindon Town on Good Friday with bottom club Rochdale at the One Call Stadium on Monday and Clough said: “We want to get two positive results over the Easter period then, with half a dozen games to go, we will see where we sit in the league.

“With only eight games to go and six points up for grabs in three days it can be a significant weekend.

“Lose a couple of games and all of a sudden you are out of it, but win a couple of games and you're right in there come Monday at 5pm. We know where we want to be.

“The table is so unbelievably tight. But with eight games to go we know it is in our hands which is a good thing.”

He added: “It's lovely to be in the mix still – I wish we were further in it but we still have time.

“We are not ruling anything out. We're just seven points off it and looking back if we had not had the injuries and just a couple more wins we'd be right in it. It was the case last season too.

“I can see it going to a similar situation as last season where in the last game you could get automatic, be in the play-offs or miss out altogether. It's looking like it's going to be that tight again.

“We should have got a clean sheet on Saturday. We will need a few in the last eight games. It's good we've still got the majority at home with Stevenage and Orient being the two stand-out ones. And four of our last eight are against bottom seven or eight teams so we need to get as many points as we can.”

Stags roared back to form after four games without a win with a 4-1 victory over Crawley Town last weekend, but Clough said: “Saturday's result didn't mask things too much for me.

“We still need our injured players back as soon as we can as, when you play against the best teams in the league, you want your best players on the pitch. And that's when we have struggled when we haven't had them.

“Over the two and half years we've been here the two periods we've struggled to win enough games have been the two where we've had the injuries. We think we have a squad good enough to challenge for the automatics, but the injuries have affected that in an adverse way.

“I haven't seen too many of the other sides up there have so many injuries.”

He added: “We didn't convert enough chances from the 27 shots we had against Crawley, but on the back of struggling to create chances and score goals the previous couple of weeks then it was pleasing.

“We needed that win desperately as nerves will creep in at this time of the season.

“Scoring the early goal settled everyone down. There was an air of relief around the stadium and it was like turning on a tap as we then scored four in one game.”

On Good Friday's challenge, he said: “It will be a very different game on Friday. I think Swindon are very unpredictable at the moment. They are difficult to gauge as they're very up and down.

“But, despite the change of manager, we know from playing them earlier in the season the sort of quality they have.

“They're one of the two teams who have put five past us on our own patch, which isn't nice.

“Swindon have a way of playing which hasn't changed too much.

“When they changed manager they were very particular that they wanted someone to come in and play this style of football. They have a lot of quality players.

Swindon's biggest threat could come from former Burnley, QPR and Southampton star striker Charlie Austin.

“When you have someone with his goalscoring experience at the highest level then it's inevitable he will get the headlines and get the goals, which he has done since January,” said Clough.

“So I don't think there'll be any more dangerous player on the pitch than him.”

On Monday bottom side Rochdale visit and Clough added: “It's difficult to know what to expect with the change of manager. They have just had a brilliant win at Wimbledon.

“You would have said before that result that Rochdale were down.

“There are not many games to go, but teams can have a resurgence late on and we have got to be very careful of that.”