Nigel Clough pleased to see ‘rusty’ Mansfield Town return with a win

Baily Cargill's opener was wiped out before half-time by a controversial penalty.

But Davis Keillor-Dunn and George Maris netted twice in eight minutes after the break and home hopes of a fightback ended by a red card to Jay Williams on 68 minutes after a foul on Stephen Quinn.

“I thought we looked a bit rusty at times both physically, and especially mentally,” said Clough.

“Some of the decisions we made were a bit strange to say the least.

“But I thought at 1-0 up we were in reasonable control of the game and there were not too many scares until the penalty.”

On the spot kick, Clough said: “We still can't believe he gave it, having just watched it back.

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“We have had it all season where players have been held in the box and had their shirts pulled. But if the ball is not near the officials tell us it's not relevant.

“But he has given that for a shirt pull when the ball is actually 20-30 yards away and not even going anywhere hear the player that has supposedly been fouled.

“So I thought that was a very unusual and strange decision.

“But he got the sending-off decision right. The foul first was a yellow card and then he caught him afterwards, so it was two different things. He was spot on about that.”

Quinn came on for Ollie Clarke at the break and set up the two second half goals.

“We wanted to change the formation slightly at half-time, Stephen Quinn came on and made both goals and made the difference,” said Clough.

“We got better as the game went on though we should keep the ball better when we are up against 10 men.

“We did for the majority and didn't really have a scare in the last 30 minutes. And we had opportunities to get another goal.”

He added: “The first goal was an absolutely wonderful goal. It was an absolutely brilliant cross from Rhys Oates and Baily Cargill had it in the back of the net before the keeper realised.

“The second was a great cross from Stephen Quinn and a great finish from Davis Keillor-Dunn. But it would have been a penalty. The referee was about to give it for the foul on Aden Flint, who had been hauled back.

“It was important to win today, having not played for two and a half weeks, with five games over the Christmas period, including this one.

“We now have four in nine days ahead so it was lovely to start the run with a win.

“Hopefully we can get back in the groove now.

“We lost here last season and today was a similar sort of game in many ways. And we had the penalty decision go against us. But we scored three good goals and in many ways we deserved the three points.”

Clough said illness had hit the club this week which was why striker Will Swan was absent.

“We have had a bout of flu round the camp this week which is why Will Swan missed out with a bad dose of it and Stephen Quinn didn't start either as he missed training in the middle of the week,” said the manager.

“He hardly ever misses training but felt too rough to come in.

“The win feels even better when we were without arguably our best three midfielders with Aaron Lewis out with a hamstring strain and Louis Reed suspended on top of Stephen Quinn not being fit enough to start.”