Mansfield Town Manager Nigel Clough will take charge of his first game at Field Mill tonight in an EFL League Two match against Colchester United that will be the first of the season to allow five substitutes to be used.<\/p>\n
The Football League this week agreed to the five subs rule as games are thick and fast from now until the new year with more strain than ever before on players under testing circumstances caused by covid-19.<\/p>\n
Clough said his side have had a huge lift following victory against promotion chasing Forest Green last weekend stating \u201cEverything has lifted this week and everyone has come in with a smile on their face. When you win matches at a football club, the players come in for training with that added buzz.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s wonderful to see. It was great to see them after the game on Saturday \u2013 normally we would go in straight away, but we left them for a few minutes to enjoy that feeling, which was important.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve been close to it in the last few weeks, but to get there away from home at Forest Green, it\u2019s given everybody a huge lift.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a couple of days off as the lads were shattered after the game. We\u2019ve had a couple of good training sessions this week \u2013 we\u2019re trying to slowly instil in the players what we want from them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ahead of the visit of Colchester tonight Clough said \u201cThey are an extremely good team and they are another team, like Forest Green, who have settled into a pattern of play.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are one of those teams that are more than capable of being up there around the top six or seven.\u201d<\/p>\n
On his own side he relayed \u201cWe want to see more of what we saw in the first-half at Forest Green. We want to take the game to teams when we can and play with a bit more freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the most difficult aspect when you\u2019re down there, to play with that freedom. That\u2019s why if we can get ourselves to a position of relative safety, the players can really relax and play a bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a battle. It doesn\u2019t matter how you get the results \u2013 if you come under the cosh and end up getting the three points, that\u2019s all that matters at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joe Riley is long-term injured and George Maris is likely to miss out with bruised ribs whilst Tom Lapslie, the older brother of Stags in form midfielder George, could be a doubt for Colchester.<\/p>\n
The U\u2019s are currently seventh in the table and have won their last two league and cup games but were beaten a couple of weeks bacjk by Marine in the FA Cup although bounced back with a 6-1 win against Southend in the Football League Trophy before beating Leyton Orient at the Community Stadium last weekend.<\/p>\n
Kick off tonight is 7pm with the match streamed live only on iFollow.<\/p>\n