Nigel Clough celebrates Mansfield milestone with impressive away win

Mansfield manager Nigel Clough felt his side imposed themselves right from the start against AFC Wimbledon after they ran out comfortable 3-0 winners at Plough Lane.

It was a big night for Clough as his 275th EFL game in charge of the Stags set a new club record and his players marked the occasion with a dominant performance to make it five League One games unbeaten.

The only solace for Wimbledon was the scoreline was not a repeat of the 5-0 trouncing they took at Sheffield Wednesday last Saturday as the visitors had several chances to add to their tally.

Clough said: “I just thought the intent from the first minute when we got a corner, had a chance and then created a couple more (was excellent).

“To have three chances of that quality in the first 11 or 12 minutes showed how we were going to set up.

“I thought the midfield three were excellent, and Jon Russell off Michael Smith.

“It was just a very good team performance.

“The only slight hiccup we had was the first 15-20 minutes of the second half.

“We should have been out of sight in the first half – we counted three excellent chances in the first 11 minutes of the game but didn’t put one away.

“Michael Smith then gets two brilliant headers to put us in control, then you’ve got to get the third one because when you’re here, Johnnie Jackson’s team are going to put you under pressure at some point of the game.”

Smith struck twice for Mansfield in five minutes before the half-hour mark, both headers from Stephen McLaughlin crosses.

He then turned provider for the Stags’ third by passing to Russell who checked back inside before finishing delightfully into the top corner.

Dons boss Jackson said: “I just put it down to they had more energy than us – they looked like they wanted it more in that first half.

“We were not stopping crosses coming into our box. We knew they were going to commit numbers into the box when they’re delivering from wide, that’s what they do well.

“We spoke in the last couple of days about tracking runners, and stuff like that, and we haven’t done that well enough.

“In that period, they just showed a lot more desire to be front-footed and play forward and run forward, and it was tough to see that.

“When you see the reaction in the second half, and we’re doing all the things that they’ve done to us, it’s hard to take that we didn’t start the game like that.

“It shouldn’t take a rocket at half-time (for us) to come out and react. We did but it was too little, too late.”