Mansfield boss Nigel Clough was delighted to see Harry Charsley end the day as a super substitute with a second-half brace that hauled his in-form side into the League Two play-off spots following a 2-0 home win over Walsall.

It was a sixth home league win in a row and their ninth in 10, and Clough said: “It was an enforced change unfortunately as Ollie Clarke felt his hamstring, but he couldn’t have had much more of an impact.

“Today I told Harry at half-time to ‘go on and win the game’ and that’s the sort of impact you want your substitutes to have. It just proves it’s not all about the XI you pick.

“Usually we have had one-goal games, so it’s much nicer when you have that two-goal cushion.

“It was a difficult pitch today and Walsall are an unbelievably honest side, who came to stop us playing and be a threat on the break.

“I thought the turning point wasn’t the first goal but a few minutes before when George Maris kept one out on the line.

“It typified the team work and spirit that he’s back in there. It hit him in the face.

“To come from second bottom to where we are, we’re now looking up rather than down which is nice and we’re in good spirits.”

After George Maris had painfully blocked a Miller shot on the line with his face after 56 minutes, Charsley was on hand to drill the ball home when an Elliott Hewitt throw was cleared to him.

He added his second a minute from time, beating Carl Rushworth at his near post after swapping a series of passes with Jordan Bowery down the right.

Walsall boss Matt Taylor thought the Maris block and then Charsley’s opener was the game’s turning point.

“That was the game there and then in a nutshell,” he said.

“We have created some good opportunities today, playing a different way, which we had to do with the surface and the opposition.

“We were compact in our shape – first half – and I was pleased at half-time with the real desire the players showed.

“But when you get those big chances away from home, you have got to score.

“We didn’t do that and we conceded from a set play and didn’t make them work hard enough for their second goal, which flattered them. I don’t think that was a 2-0 game today to be fair.

“We were pushing and trying to get back in the game so you’re always going to be vulnerable.

“I will accept it when we get beat well, but today we had enough opportunities to get something from the game.”