Nigel Clough feels Mansfield Town are back on track after win at Crawley

Boss Nigel Clough believes Mansfield Town are back on track after their 2-1 win at Crawley Town.
Nigel Clough believes Mansfield Town are back on track after their win at Crawley. It was their sixth win in seven with the only defeat being the midweek loss at Sutton United. duringNigel Clough believes Mansfield Town are back on track after their win at Crawley. It was their sixth win in seven with the only defeat being the midweek loss at Sutton United. during
Nigel Clough believes Mansfield Town are back on track after their win at Crawley. It was their sixth win in seven with the only defeat being the midweek loss at Sutton United. during

Stags switched to a 3-5-2 system with the change paying dividends.

“[I am] Very, very pleased. We changed things up a bit today,” he said.

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“I thought it [the formation change] was justified after the performance on Tuesday night.

“It was good to get the sixth win out of the last seven games and get us back on track.”

The change in system saw Oli Hawkins return to his more natural position of strike.

It paid off as Hawkins and strike partner Rhys Oates bagged goals to secure the win.

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“Oli Hawkins, we shoved him back up front today and he’s got one and made one,” added Clough.

“[On Rhys Oates] I thought his pace caused them problems all afternoon. With the ball holding up [in the wind] he got on the end of one and tucked it away. Lovely.

“We’ve missed him when he’s been out. It’s no surprise that we don’t score in midweek [but] we got two down at Stevenage when he was in the team and we got two today.

“He chases lost causes. Defenders hate that sort of thing. They [defenders] can never relax when he’s around.”

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The decision to play a three-man defensive line was one that the manager took his time on when picking the side for the game at Crawley.

“This was probably one of the hardest teams we’ve picked in the last 12 months or so,” he said.

“We had lots of options and different formations in our mind.

“We thought let’s try three at the back today. Let’s give it a go. It was justified today. We tried to freshen it up and create more chances.

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“We hadn’t really worked on it [the new formation]. We went to [a back three] for the last ten minutes against Sutton the other night and we looked okay.

“Everybody acquitted themselves [correctly] and that’s why we got the win.”

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