We are now in a dogfight, admits Mansfield Town boss Nigel Clough as defeat at Blackpool makes it six league games without a win
Mansfield Town manager Nigel Clough believes his side are in a dogfight after tonight's 1-0 defeat at struggling Blackpool left them without a win in six league games and six points off the drop zone.
A scrappy game of few chances was settled by Niall Ennis' 34th minute finish to bring Stags back down to earth after the superb FA Cup win at Premier League Burnley on Saturday and leave them looking over their shoulders.
“We need to get some points as soon as we can and we need to get back to clean sheets as we are now in a dogfight as we anticipated,” said Clough.
“We could see this coming with the run of games we had ahead of us and we knew we had to get something out of the Peterborough game last week.
“I was very disappointed with the goal we conceded again tonight, similar to the two against Peterborough.
“Maybe we have to go back to those boring 0-0s that get us a couple of points on the board.
“We can't get to the 40-point mark at the moment, but we had enough of the game tonight. We just struggled to create.
“We got into some good positions and situations but just couldn't produce a shot or a cross.
“I thought we were good for the first 20 minutes and then got scrappy and started giving the ball away, which finished with them getting the winning goal.”
Clough made four changes to freshen things up after Saturday but said: “I was a bit disappointed with the fresh lads that came in. They didn't quite do enough.”
Stags now host high-flying Lincoln who look a good bet for Championship football next season and tonight beat Northampton 4-0 – a 15th league game unbeaten,
“Lincoln had another thumping win tonight – the form team and having an absolutely outstanding season, so it's not going to get any easier,” said Clough.