Mansfield Town squad players have an opportunity to shine, says Nigel Clough

Mansfield will miss Ollie Clarke for one game, and expect to lose Stephen Quinn for three matches, following their dismissals against Harrogate.

Clough watched on as Mansfield U23’s beat Sunderland in the Premier League Cup on Monday night, with a number of players catching his eye.

“We have got players who featured in the u23s last night who have a game under their belt and have an opportunity to come in,” said Clough.

“It was a good game and I thought we scored good goals and played well.

Clough wants better defending from set-pieces

“I’m very pleased with the lads who played. You look for work rate and attitude and it is good timing.

Stags travel to the Bescot Stadium looking to half a slide of three straight league defeats.

Clough believes Mansfield are not far off where they need to be and is keen to see a change of fortune from the officials.

“We are not that far off,” he said. “We got off to a good start and then you look at the last three games, we've not been outplayed and we could argue for getting points from them all - but we have three defeats which hurts.

“We have to try and get draws when we are not winning to keep the confidence going, it is defeats that hit confidence.

“The players, I think, will be hurting right now, we have to emphasise the good we are doing and highlight what is costing us the game.

“We are not getting many decisions going our way. We had three decent penalty shouts on Saturday and then you look at what went against us at Colchester.”

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