Nigel Clough taking the positives out of Mansfield Town's stalemate with Newport County

Stags were forced to see out the last 36 minutes a man light after James Perch was red-carded for two bookable offences.

It saw Mansfield fighting hard to hold on to a point with a battling display which left the boss pleased.

Match report – Stags 0 Newport 0

“We played nearly 40 mins with ten men, which is an awfully long time,” he said.

“We kept our clean sheet and our home run going, which is very important.

“When you're playing for that amount of time against a good side with ten men you fear it is in danger (unbeaten run)

“You don’t want back-to-back defeats in a season and this could be a good point for confidence.

“We had our best spell 10 -15 mins after the break before the red card.

“I thought we were getting into our rhythm and starting to play and then the red card means it’s a different game.

“We played some good stuff without creating too much, but credit to them, they are big, strong, organised and tough to break down.

“We had enough situations and we should have done a bit better with the final ball.

“I didn’t think our set plays were great tonight, which was disappointing.

“But we dug in well and got what could be an important point.”

But Clough was left a touch frustrated following the red card and what he sees as a lack of consistency from the officials.

“I thought the first yellow was a bit soft,” said Clough. “The ref says he's stopping a promising attack.

“Their lad made a similar tackle outside the penalty area the other week on JJ (O’Toole), but it wasn't seen as a promising attacking.

“Outside the area is surely more promising than the halfway line.

“The ref didn't have much option with the second yellow, but I thought there was only one bad tackle in the game and that was in the 95th minute with the challenge of (Kellan) Gordon).

“Graham Coughlan said he thought that it was a red card. It wouldn't have affected the outcome of the game in any way but you are looking for some consistency and a recognition that it was a very poor tackle.”

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