Mansfield Town must 'back up' Luton Town win when they face Reading, stresses Nigel Clough
Nigel Clough wants to see his side build on their electric performance against Luton Town when they face Reading and Bradford this week.
Stags are currently facing a busy and tough schedule but they have started it off with a huge statement after their stunning win over Luton Town.
Jack Wilshere’s side simply couldn't deal with Mansfield as they ran riot at the One Call Stadium, going 5-0 up before an hour had been played.
Braces from Nathan Moriah-Welsh and Jon Russell came either side of a Louis Reed goal to stamp a dominant home win against promotion hopefuls Luton.
While Wilshere admitted his side’s performance was simply unacceptable, Clough wants to see Stags use this result as a springboard into two tough away days.
“Getting the third goal right before half-time was absolutely vital and it set the tone for the second half. We wanted to keep the momentum going after the break and get more goals as soon as we could,” Clough said at full-time.
“Nathan Moriah-Welsh scored two brilliant goals, two different types of goals. It was that sort of day where things just went in for us. We could see the confidence growing as the goals went in.”
Luton were able to get two goals back late in the match after Nahki Wells scored a penalty in the 78th minute and a well-taken strike in stoppage time. Clough admitted it was slightly disappointing not to keep the clean sheet but against a team like Luton, any kind of win is a huge result.
“After that, we really should have kept the ball better, especially in the last five or ten minutes. The penalty, I think, just came from a little bit of fatigue from Kyle Knoyle, he didn’t really need to make the challenge. Then we should have kept the ball better for the second goal.
“When you score five goals against a quality team like Luton, I would’ve taken a 5-4 if you’d have give it us, so any victory at all is a good one. There were some very important little things as well like first goals of the season for people and getting Luke Bolton and David McGoldrick back on the pitch.”
“We’ve now got to go to very difficult places in Reading and Bradford and get results to back it up. We’ve got to back today up. We didn’t back Doncaster up against Peterborough but we’ve got to back this result up.
“I told the players straight away after the game: well done, great three points, great five goals, now get ready for Reading on Wednesday and then Bradford on Saturday.”