16 October 2021

Nigel Clough makes admission after Mansfield lose at Northampton

16 October 2021

Mansfield manager Nigel Clough took responsibility for picking the wrong team after his side’s poor run of form continued with defeat against Northampton

The Stags’ winless run stretched to 12 games in all competitions with a toothless display at Sixfields as defenders Aaron McGowan and Fraser Horsfall struck in either half for Northampton.

Mansfield are only outside the League Two relegation zone on goal difference and Clough admitted: “Just about everything went wrong to be honest. Certainly the performance and our endeavour to score a goal at any time in the game was bitterly disappointing.

“We played with two strikers up front and had the odd skirmish in their penalty area but nothing sustained.

“It was a gamble to move Oli Hawkins back up front from centre-half in order to try and get a goal but it certainly didn’t work because we didn’t look like scoring for large parts of the game despite playing 4-4-2 with attacking players.

“I’ll take responsibility for that because I probably picked the wrong formation and wrong team in trying to be positive.

“I should have stuck three in the middle of the midfield with a bit more pace out wide but we had such a good week’s training working on a 4-4-2 after finishing well last Saturday.

“We hoped to take it into today’s game but it didn’t work out like that. We should have had a penalty in the last few minutes but I don’t think we did enough to score a goal during the game.”

Northampton moved back into the top 10 with the win and manager Jon Brady said: “It was a strong afternoon for us and I thought all 11 players who started were really good and really intense.

“We were much better out of possession with things that we have needed to improve, like stopping crosses and showing more intensity in doing that.

“There was a lot of talk through the week about the manner of the goals we have conceded recently because earlier in the season we weren’t doing things like that and those type of goals weren’t happening.

“We had that intensity and that desire today to not stop them having many chances. They had one header in the first half from a cross but apart from that they didn’t have anything else all afternoon so that was really strong from the boys.

“It was really important to keep that clean sheet. It was heart in mouth at the end when the referee gave them a penalty but we’ve looked at it back and it was just outside the box so fair play to the officials, it was a good decision.”

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