Nigel Clough delighted to see Mansfield recover to take a point at Burton

Mansfield boss Nigel Clough was delighted to see his side recover from two goals down to grab a point in a 2-2 draw with his former club Burton.

The Brewers were 2-0 up inside half an hour as Deji Oshilaja deflected Charlie Webster’s effort past his own goalkeeper before Jack Armer headed home to double Albion’s advantage.

But, crucially, Michael Smith slotted home five minutes before the break to put Mansfield right back in it.

“I think it’s a deserved point, definitely.” Clough said. “Over the course of the game it was probably fair.

“I didn’t think we started the game very well. You can’t do much about the first goal, an own goal from Deji, but they were far better than us and then Michael Smith gives us a lifeline.

“At 2-0 down it’s a brilliant cross and a brilliant finish that gets us back into the game.

“We reorganised a bit with Luke Bolton and Rhys Oates after the break and we had probably enough chances to win two games.”

It was former Burton striker Lucas Akins who grabbed the equaliser, turning sharply inside the box to fire home, something that delighted Clough.

“It was lovely for him to come back here and get a goal,” Clough said.

“He was a firm hero here at Burton for many, many years and rightly so. We are always a bit worried when we have so many players coming back to face their former club because it can be difficult with the emotions.”

Burton head coach Gary Bowyer was left frustrated and struggling to find positives despite leading by two goals in a first half where he was visibly disappointed in his side’s performance.

“I thought we were very passive in the first half,” Bowyer said. “We weren’t aggressive enough with everything and once we got the second goal we sat back. I don’t think their keeper had a save to make in the second half.

“I think that is the inexperience in the group and the goals we conceded were so poor. We talk about speed of learning and some of them aren’t learning.”

Albion were left to rue a Kyran Lofthouse effort on the stroke of half-time that rattled the crossbar and would have made it 3-1, with Bowyer feeling that his side were the ones most grateful for the point.

“Nigel is probably saying it’s a good point for them because they were 2-0 down, but I think it’s a point gained for us because so many things were missing from our game and we were nowhere near the standard required.

“That today was nothing like what we are or have spoken about and delivered and they need to learn fast after that.”