Mansfield Town boss Nigel Clough wary of threat posed by 'relentless' Bradford City
Nigel Clough has conceded Mansfield Town are set for a tough test against a “relentless” Bradford City side.
Fresh from holding Barnsley to a 2-2 draw at the weekend, Mansfield are set to visit West Yorkshire for a battle with promotion hopefuls Bradford.
Graham Alexander’s side suffered defeat on the road in their last outing, losing 2-0 to Wigan Athletic, but tend to be a force to be reckoned with on home turf.
Bradford’s home form is something Clough is well-aware of as he looks to pull off an upset under the lights.
Nigel Clough wary of ‘relentless’ Bradford City
As reported by our sister site, the Mansfield Chad, he said: “They’re relentless in what they do and are scoring an awful lot of late goals, so it’s going to be a big test for us.
“They are a different side at home, their home record is very good indeed, they’ve hardly lost at home this season.
“That’s going to be the test for us and also, what they haven’t done very often is lost back-to-back. Having lost to Wigan on Saturday, they’ll be looking to bounce back straight away.”
Mansfield Town squad feeling the strain
Mansfield sit 15th in the League One table, closer to the relegation zone than the top six.
Clough’s squad is feeling the strain of a hectic schedule and there is not too much training ground work going on as loads are carefully managed.
Mansfield’s manager said: “There’s not a lot of training going on, apart from the lads who aren’t playing much who need topping up. The rest of them are just resting and recovering between games.
“We’re not looking too bad for the rest of this month but when we get into April, we could be looking at 18 in 25 days, or something like that. So it’s going to be a tough run-in, which makes the next three games extremely important for us.
“We’re juggling it as best we can, but we’ve got one or two players who have got issues and can’t play Saturday then Tuesday, or Tuesday then Saturday, so that’s why you see the changes.
“It’d be lovely to play the same team, honestly, but it’s just not possible. It’s impractical to expect the players to play that many games - specially given how important the games are.”