Nigel Clough: Mansfield Town have 'aimed for' Wembley play-off final

Former Sheffield United, Derby and Burton boss Nigel Clough is in his first full season in charge of Mansfield Town

Boss Nigel Clough says reaching the play-off final at Wembley has helped Mansfield overcome the "regret" of missing out on automatic promotion because of a poor early-season run.

The Stags are one win from returning to the third tier for the first time since 2003 after getting past Northampton.

Mansfield were in the relegation zone in October but went on to finish just four points short of going straight up.

"This is what we've aimed for," Clough told BBC Radio Nottingham.

"We were a bit disappointed in the last six weeks of the season not to have a closer crack at automatic promotion, because it was so tight.

"To finish just seven points from the top of the league really made us look back with a few regrets early in the season.

"But that's all gone, we can't do anything about that - let's look forward to Wembley, see who we play and see if we can win."

The Stags will face either Port Vale or Swindon Town at the national stadium on Saturday, 28 May, with the Robins holding a 2-1 advantage going into their trip to Vale Park on Thursday.

A 14-game winless run in all competitions between mid-August and late October left Mansfield second-from-bottom.

While Clough's side were equal on points with last-placed Scunthorpe at that time, the Stags went on to surge up the table to challenge for promotion while the Iron never recovered and were relegated.

A club record 11 consecutive home league wins was instrumental in helping the Stags turn their season around.

At Sixfields - a ground where Clough says they suffered one their worst defeats earlier in the season - Mansfield booked their first trip to Wembley since 2011 after beating the Cobblers 1-0 in the second leg of their semi-final on Wednesday, to complete a 3-1 aggregate victory.

"We were pretty much rock bottom," Clough said of the 2-0 defeat at Sixfields in October.

"We were absolutely out of it really. It was our poorest performance by some distance. We were near the bottom of the league.

"But they [players] kept believing and we kept believing in them."

Mansfield owner and chairman John Radford said the win at Sixfields to get the Stags to Wembley was "absolutely perfect".

"Cloughy has them playing well and we were able to park the bus and hold on," he said.

"The fans got right behind them, it was a fantastic experience."