'Stags have always been in relegation battle' - Clough
Nigel Clough guided Mansfield Town to automatic promotion from League Two last season
- Published
Boss Nigel Clough says his Mansfield Town side have been in a relegation battle throughout the season - even when they were flying high in League One.
Tuesday's 3-0 defeat by Lincoln City was their eighth loss in nine matches.
The woeful run has seen the Stags - who made a strong start to their first season in the third tier for 21 years - plummet down the league table to 15th place.
When asked about concerns his side could get caught up in a relegation battle, Clough replied: "We have been in it since August.
"I've never said anything different. I thought we would be in it from day one, and we will be in it until the 45th or 46th game.
"It's never been any different over the course of the season. We had a great little run a couple of times before Christmas, but we've never been any different from my point of view."
In October, Clough said the Stags were living more than a dream as five successive wins - their best run of results in the third tier since 1976 - had them flying high in third spot.
Not since a solitary season in the second tier in 1977-78 had Mansfield been higher in the football pyramid.
"That is what's giving us a chance and keeping our heads above water," Clough told BBC Radio Nottingham.
"But at the moment you can't see where the next point is coming from."
Since that five-game winning run across September and October, Mansfield have managed just five league wins in 22 games and find themselves nine points above the drop zone with 15 matches remaining.
Even when they were thriving this season, Clough was insistent that success for Mansfield - a side that spent just one season in the third tier in the past three decades - would be measured only by their survival.
"That is all I've been interested from day one, nothing else," he added.
"I've never professed anything other than that. Staying in this league for the first time in 35 years will be a major success."