We have gone more than toe to toe with one of the top sides said Mansfield Town boss Nigel Clough after narrow defeat by Charlton Athletic

The Valiants have now won seven and drawn one of their last nine games and left the One Call Stadium knowing they had been in a game.

“They are one of the top sides and we have more than gone toe to toe with them,” said Clough.

“We gave them a good old game. Those little moments just went against us.

“There was nothing wrong with the performance tonight for large parts against a very good team

“It was an incredibly narrow defeat – there was nothing in the game whatsover.

“We just made two errors that led to their two goals and that was the difference in the game.”

Louis Reed's poor backpass gifted Matty Godden the visitors' 22nd minute opener.

Matty Craig's superb finish on 40 minutes levelled matters before Tyreece Campbell won it 15 minutes from time with a powerful shot past Christy Pym at the near post.

“On Saturday we benefited from the opposition making a couple of errors and Charlton did tonight, especially the first goal,” said Clough.

“Trying to play a first time ball back to the keeper was ridiculous. We don't usually do those sort of things and it is incredibly frustrating. But Deji (Oshilaja) should never have given him the ball in the first place.

“I thought Matty Craig did well tonight in his first game for a couple of months and it was a brilliant finish.

“He put his foot through it which some of our lads are reluctant to do at times from 18-20 yards. We encourage them all the time in training to do that.

“They are looking for a perfect one sometimes and it doesn't happen.”

He continued: “First half Charlton had good spells but we got going for the last 10-15 minutes and I thought we played well in the second half.

“If anyone was going to win it it looked like it would be us and I don't think Christy had a shot to save before the goal.

“I am a bit disappointed with Pymy as it's gone in on his near post.

“I thought Macca was a bit unlucky with the challenge and the way the ball dropped. I would expect the keeper to save that.”