Opposition view: Clough hails Cobblers as 'the best team in the league' after Boxing Day draw

Mansfield Town manager Nigel Clough has hailed Northampton as ‘the best team in the league’ following Monday’s dramatic 1-1 draw between the two teams at Field Mill.

Will Swan’s 84th-minute opener was cancelled out by a superb volley from Sam Hoskins just four minutes later – a goal that left Clough fuming – as Cobblers maintained a seven-point gap back to fourth place in League Two.

Leyton Orient remain well clear at the top ahead of tomorrow’s meeting with second-placed Stevenage, but despite the excellent form of those two teams, Clough reckons Town are better than both.

He said: “To be fair, I thought Northampton were very good today and I think they are the best team in the league, genuinely. I know Orient are top at the moment but in terms of an all-round team, I think Northampton are the best in the league.

"But I’m very disappointed with us. We gave the ball away an incredible amount of times and ultimately that cost us in the 88th minute when Stephen McLaughlin loses the ball.

"We were 1-0 up – which we didn't deserve to be but we were – and there's only two or three minutes to go and all you have to do is kick the ball up the pitch. It’s about making good decisions and not making mistakes.

"It’s one hell of a finish from Hoskins but the ball should be up near their corner flag, no doubt about it. Instead he’s tried to slide a ball down the side, it’s been cut out, we don’t get a foot in and the cross come in and the lad smacks it in.

"We gave the ball away more in the first 15 minutes than we had done in a week in training and we still aren’t taking training into the game. Their tails were up so at least we saw the last few minutes out, but we gave it away a disgusting amount of times. We looked a bit rusty.

"Northampton are the team we are chasing so we need to beat them and we nearly did so. We should have been talking about a 1-0 victory. We didn’t deserve it but it wouldn’t have mattered.”