Nigel Clough: Mansfield Town at their best despite injury crisis, says boss

Nigel Clough has been Mansfield boss since November 2020

Boss Nigel Clough says Mansfield Town's injury crisis has brought the best out his League Two promotion-chasing side.

Eight players were ruled out of their victory at Tranmere, which extended Mansfield's winning run to three games and moved them to within three points of the automatic promotion spots.

Joining the injury list last week were John-Joe O'Toole and Will Swan.

"We are probably in the best place we have been in in terms of confidence, despite the injuries," Clough said.

"And the way the results have gone the last few weeks, there is a nice sort of determination and resolve among the squad at the moment."

Clough said the Stags will "give it everything we have got" over the remaining 15 games of the campaign to get into the top three.

It is the second push for promotion Mansfield have made in as many seasons under Clough, with the Stags beaten by Port Vale in the play-off final at Wembley last season after finishing seventh in the table.

After a woeful 14-match winless start to the 2021-22 season, a club record 11 consecutive home league wins between 30 October and 2 April catapulted Mansfield into promotion contention.

And the Mansfield boss says the injury woes now faced by the club - which could see O'Toole miss the next eight weeks, while Louis Reed, Rhys Oates and Stephen McLaughlin all remain out as well - has generated the same fighting spirit his side called on last term.

"That showed up last season when we went on that horrific run and then the way we came out of it and what went on from there, taking us all the way to Wembley," Clough told BBC Radio Nottingham.

"That was about character as much as anything.

"It has been the same a little this season, and especially now when we have eight or nine missing."

Mansfield next face Salford City, a side just three points and one spot behind them in the table.