Nigel Clough hopes Huddersfield result is a 'turning point' for Mansfield Town area of concern
Mansfield Town will look to use their draw against Huddersfield Town as a benchmark for games to come this season.
It’s already proving to be an incredibly competitive League One season and Stags have endured a real mixed bag of results so far.
Unbeaten at home but yet to pick up a point on the road, Mansfield are eager to use last weekend’s performance to propel them forward.
It’s not often a 0-0 draw is viewed as a great result but in this case, it was a superb outcome for Stags. Up against the unbeaten Huddersfield, Nigel Clough’s side dug deep to bank a point, even after fighting most of the second half with a man down.
“It reinforces the belief that we can defend as we did last season,” Clough said in his midweek press conference. “We restricted a very, very good team. That’s another thing you’ve got to bear in mind, just how good Huddersfield are.
“They’re the only unbeaten team left this season and I think they would have fancied their chances over 40 minutes against ten men.
“We did our jobs, everybody put a magnificent shift in. The running stats on certain lads like Liam Thompson were very impressive indeed.”
The Terriers are yet to lose a match this season and will certainly be frustrated they couldn’t make their player advantage pay at the One Call Stadium.
The result marked Stags’ first clean sheet of the season and showed the solid defence that stumped many last season.
Mansfield Town finished the 2025/26 season with the joint third-best defence in all of League One. After conceding just 50 goals – the same amount as second-placed Cardiff City – only Stevenage (46) and champions Lincoln City (41) shipped fewer across the board.
Stags have let in 11 goals in six matches so far this season. Major damage was done when Reading put five past them, which is a result Clough is still baffled by.
Defending had become a slight concern at Mansfield but the manager hopes this is now where things turn themselves around.
“We have to do it more regularly than the one in six games… to concede the amount of goals we have done so far this season. I know even during pre-season it crept in there,” Clough continued.
“I’m hoping this is a turning point to show how we can defend, and we did defend incredibly well on Saturday. Bodies on line, organisation and everything like that was absolutely spot on. So we’ll see in the next few weeks.”