‘Pretty Blatant’ – Nigel Clough Reacts At Lincoln City Take Three Points

Brian Clough was rarely one to talk about decisions, often defending referees, no matter the incident on the field.

Son Nigel, who has had a great career as a manager, was not so forgiving yesterday in a game he felt was a tale of three penalties. The first, conceded by Will Evans, there is no argument about, but two later on have caused Mansfield some anger.

Their analyst team, close to the media box, felt one was a stonewall penalty and communicated that to the bench as soon as the player went down. Clough agreed, although he did think ours was a penalty as well. When asked by their media for his thoughts on the game, he replied.

“Three penalties really,” said Clough. “First one is definitely a penalty. Incredibly poor decision by Will Evans to do that.

“You’re getting in at nil-nil at half time. We battled away, not much in it. They were probably better than us in the first half, just looked more confident, more composed. But we battled and defended brilliantly and we’re two minutes off half time when we give the penalty away.”

That’s not unfair. We were the better side in the first half, and perhaps the two best chances in a scrappy game fell to us – Varafolomeev’s drive that went wide, and Bradley’s poke from the corner that Roberts’ saved. They shifted shape at half-time and again, in fairness, they did come out looking quite strong, with two half-decent penalty shouts.

“Second half I thought we came out and were absolutely brilliant,” said Clough. “I thought we gave everything. Lincoln aren’t the sort to sit back, they want to go forward and score goals. They’ve got an extremely good team but I thought we forced them back with a lot of good play.

“To get two very good shouts for penalties as well as a free kick on the edge of the box and not get any of them is incredible. Conservatively, it’s 10 points now this season that decisions have cost us. Most teams might say two or three points, but not 10. This is pretty blatant now and we’re talking about it week in, week out.”

Luckily, it’s not just us that he feels gets decisions, he’s also quite keen to express that there is some sort of vendetta against Mansfield Town. Clough even wanted a game replayed earlier in the season after a referee’s decision.

I was told an amusing story about them having a small referee’s room, building their new facilities, and as they went to open them, not realising they’d got no room for the referee at all. They had to build a tiny one, quickly, to accommodate the refs.

Maybe that is it? Anyway, Clough did manage to squeeze into the room to speak to David Rock at half time.

“I told the referee at half time I thought it was a penalty and he said he likes it when the opposition manager says it’s a good decision.

“The lads have given absolutely everything again. We’ve lost three on the spin, the last two down to decisions. It’s incredibly frustrating. I want to talk about the endeavour and how close we were to getting a goal in the second half against a team that’s top of the league. I’m very encouraged and pleased by the second-half performance.”

Of the two, he thought the foul on Tyler Roberts was the worst. He called it the second one, I think it was where McGrandles has touched the ball clear, but I haven’t had the benefit of a replay yet.

“I thought the second one on Tyler was.,” said Clough when asked which was the strongest. “The goalkeeper’s come out and I think he’s got something on the ball, but it doesn’t matter if you follow through and take him out after that, it’s still a penalty. That’s what he did. Tyler said he was just taken out by the goalkeeper. Whether he got a touch on the ball is irrelevant.

“We saw a few decisions in the game like that. A free kick against John Russell, they say he got the ball then the man. They’re just so inconsistent. Tyler says he’s about to pull the trigger and all of a sudden he’s taken down. He couldn’t believe it hadn’t been given.”

That’s two games City have won, and two referees who have won it for us, according to opposition managers. For the record, I thought David Rock threatened to lose control at one point, giving odd free-kicks, letting some things go unpunished and then punishing lesser offences. At one point, I thought he might give a penalty to even it up, and he has been known to lose control of games before (Port Vale in 2022/23), but in the end, things did settle down.

However, Clough feels that Rock was not just inconsistent, but an absolute factor in us winning, and them losing. When asked why the Stags lost, he said:

“A refereeing decision. That’s what it comes down to sometimes. We’re into two great positions and should have had at least one penalty, maybe two. We could have won the game on those decisions.”