Owen Dodgson 'knows he let everybody down' with red card against Huddersfield Town

The left wing-back was shown a straight red card during Mansfield Town’s clash against the Terriers on Saturday, less than two minutes after he stepped foot onto the pitch.

Dodgson was brought off the bench in the second half to replace Stephen McLaughlin but a reckless challenge on Derensili Sanches Fernandes saw him sent for an early bath, leaving his teammates to defend a 0-0 draw with ten men.

Stags were able to hold on and bank a huge point but going a man down against one of the best-performing teams in League One was far from ideal.

Nigel Clough did not argue against Dodgson’s red card and has said that he hopes he learns from the mistake once he returns from his suspension.

“He’s been so keen and I think eager to impress,” the boss said during his mid-week press conference. “He’s a young-ish player and it was born out of that because we haven’t seen any sort of nastiness or that side of him over the seasons we’ve watched him.

“It was a rash moment and a misjudgement, certainly a red card, I’ve got no problems with that. Hopefully he learns from it and we move on.”

Dodgson will now be unavailable to play for three matches while he serves his suspension. While he is ruled out, Clough has stressed the defender must work hard to earn his place back in the team. Dodgson was named as a starter in Stags’ B Team clash against Notts County earlier this week.

“I think the suspension is punishment enough for him, and if we do get the international break, it’ll be five weeks or something like that. Three games that could be over a long period of time. So he’s going to have to work hard in that period,” Clough continued.

“He played in the B team yesterday for an hour, not as a punishment but just to get some game time because he won’t be able to get any over the next few weeks. So he will have to work hard now, especially to get back in the team.”

Although Stags were able to hold onto a result against Huddersfield, Clough said that Dodgson is well aware he let his teammates and the fans down with his challenge.

Reflecting on the defender’s exit from the pitch, Clough said: “It’s not nice, you’ve let everybody down. He knows that.

“He had a long walk off as well, so there will have been a lot of things going through his head but the immediate thing is that he’s let people down, especially his teammates. So hopefully he will make up for that in the next eight months.”

Dodgson signed for Mansfield Town in August on a season-long loan, following Will Evans’ permanent move to Plymouth Argyle.