Clough says long injury list hindered Mansfield against Cobblers

Mansfield boss Nigel Clough said his side were ‘rusty’ and lamented their lengthy injury list after losing 1-0 away to Northampton at Sixfields on Tuesday.

The Stags have struggled with injury all season and were missing nine players on Tuesday, but it’s been a similar story for the Cobblers who went one better with 10 first-team absentees.

Sam Hoskins scored the decisive goal with a well-taken 28th-minute penalty as Town moved eight points clear of Mansfield and within striking distance of the top three, albeit having played a game more than Carlisle and Stevenage.

“The performance was very difficult to assess when you’ve got nine players who couldn’t start the game tonight,” bemoaned Clough, whose side had the weekend off due to a postponement. “We looked as though we hadn’t played for ten days, a little bit rusty, but we had enough chances and situations to score.

“To have nine first-teamers unavailable to start tonight, coming to one of our promotion rivals, made it tough. We’ve got no choice but to get through it. We want to be in contention once we get a few players back.

“I think to have won four out of five games as we had with the injuries was remarkable. We’ve got to hang on in there.”

It went from bad to worse for Mansfield when Stephen Quinn saw red for lunging in on Kieron Bowie. He will now be suspended for three games.

"It’s the way he is at times and he realises that now,” Clough added. “He’s definitely a miss when you have no players to start with and it’s more disappointing to lose him for the next three games when we’re as short as we are.

"Stephen McLaughlin picked up another knock when he came on and we’ve no Anthony Hartigan, no Louis Reed, no George Maris. We’re a little bit light in midfield so we’ll have to shuffle it around for Saturday.

"We have to pick up the players but we only have about 10 to pick up. We’ll involve the youth team lads again on Saturday, there’s nothing we can do but wait for them to get fit.”