‘Very strange, weird game’ – Nigel Clough reacts to Mansfield’s 5-0 defeat to Reading

‘Very strange, weird game’ – Nigel Clough reacts to Mansfield’s 5-0 defeat to Reading in League One on Wednesday night.

Three goals in nine minutes saw the Royals cruising to their first league won of the season, and then the goals kept on coming.

Jack Marriott with two goals (35′, 58′), and Benn Ward (40′), George Earthy (44′) and Jacob Brown (80′) also adding to it.

The result sees Reading sitting 14th with 4 points from 3 games played, Mansfield are 12th with 6 points from 4 games played.

SHORTENED HIGHLIGHTS:

EXTENDED HIGHLIGHTS:

Mansfield’s Nigel Clough said: “We certainly caused our own problems this evening, very, very strange, weird game to have as much of the game as we did in as many chances and situations. Home crowd were booing after about 30 minutes, we were controlling the game and then within 11 minutes with 3-0 down, it’s almost game over.

“We’re adamant the first goal is a foul at the near post on Lucas, second goal, Harry Lewis. First mistake he’s made since joining us. Drops a routine cross. And then the third one, he ends up poking in, I think, off the post, and all of a sudden, you end up 3-0 down, very strange having having been in control of the game.

“And then we start the second half for 15 minutes or so. We have I don’t know, I lost count of how many chances we had. One goal disallowed that the players are adamant. Referee said they had the the ball in two hands. We can’t see that, so even every little thing tonight went against us but probably deserve that the way that we played at times but again it’s a weird weird game to come off and lose 5-0 I think don’t think that was a 5-0 tonight.”

Interviewer: “Football matches are often defined in both boxes and that was underlined tonight.”

Clough: “Always are as much as you can play nice football in between who’s going to get you a goal and I thought we had enough of the play in the first half to get a goal, had enough situations again. I don’t think our strikers were very good. Made a decision on going with Oats and David tonight and in the first 45 play well in the second half at the start, but in the first 45 they weren’t very good at all and that was one of the reasons that we didn’t get that the lead.”

Interviewer: “The damage was done as you mentioned there in that 9-minute spell uh in the first half late in the first half.”

Clough: “Yeah, as I say the the three goals uh all uh all preventable really uh we feel as though we’ve largely done ourselves in tonight but to come out the second half play 15 minutes as we did you get a goal then you never know, you never know, and the chances we had to get one were as good as any throughout the game any any that Reading created at the start of the second half we we had good chances and couldn’t score couple of changes made at the break Maris and Hendrick injury coming up.

Check out more of what he had to say below…

🗣️ Hear from manager Nigel Clough following tonight’s defeat at Reading.#Stags 🟡🔵 pic.twitter.com/PmNIV4rT8k

— Mansfield Town FC (@mansfieldtownfc) September 2, 2026

Reading’s Leam Richardson said: “Really pleased obviously with the scoreline, I thought the you know some really good strong individual performances and then in the end you know the collective performance was fantastic.

“Thought we started the game relatively well and I didn’t like us for 10 minutes 15 minutes. All of a sudden we seemed our distances were all wrong, you know our fullbacks were letting the wide players kind of drop a little bit too deep doing their job and we thought we could contain in that way which I don’t like and then you know once we snapped out of it and we got used to their press then we got used to our own distances become a lot bit more stronger.

“I thought then we we kind of turned the ball over transitioned really well and then ended up scoring a good few goals in the first half probably disappointed then not to go in half time one or two more ahead.”

Interviewer: “How important was it to almost smell the blood and go after them after we’ve got that first goal?”

Richardson: “Yeah it’s so important you know got to be more ruthless you know we’ve got to demand more on each other you know spoke a lot this week to the players I don’t mind sharing with you about you know a lot of teams now you know they’re well coached you know and the coach led teams so to speak you know with the structures and solutions and probably given too much information sometimes but there’s a ceiling to that in my opinion then the players have got to take over.

“They’ve got to have demand on each other because then when once the players take over there is no ceiling and then you know then you can become a good team you can demand on each other you can then be ruthless you can have that little bit of arrogance um because like I said you know we’ve got some good players and you you know, if we’re all aligned and connected, you know, the fans were excellent again tonight and you know, if the supporters like that through all the way through the season in good, bad, in different times as as we’ve seen, you know, with Reading over the times, that we can go somewhere.

Here’s what fans had to say while Nigel Clough reacts to Mansfield’s 5-0 defeat to Reading…

‎ @LutonsTactico: Less GD than us when you put five past us 3 days ago. NOT NICE WHEN IT HAPPENS TO YOU IS IT

@92_jackrich: Why so many changes? I’d understand folk needing a rest if we’d played 30+ games. Absolutely shambolic tonight. An embarrassment.

@Dannyjbirco: That big win on Sunday now means bugger all, too many changes, if players are too knackered after 4 games then we are utterly fucked

@RedWallPleb: We’ve gone from looking like prime Barca in the 1st half vs Luton to San Marino Sunday League for the Blind reserves team vs Reading. Only Mansfield.

@tobiblove: Fucking disgrace, no fight at all. Harry Lewis shouldn’t wear the shirt again and refund the fans who went. Awful

@mtfcstu: Can see more heavy defeats like this coming with the ageing and injured players in this squad . Mcgoldricks on his last pay day and it shows !

@olib__03: Ridiculously poor tbh. Deji has been shocking this season, Oates the same barring the run at Posh. Mcgodkrick woke up second half which was promising but should have scored. Need Russell Both Roberts and Cargill back fully Fit ASAP

@Mazza816242119: Shout out to Dorset today. Superb! Both full backs excellent. Earthly looks a player. Goals off the bench… wingers good, few more of these please! #readingfc

@_Luke1871: Lovely Wednesday night win! Best thing about tonight is that there is room for improvement and we can definitely grow as a team. So many top performances tonight. Lovely stuff

@ollie_rfc: Brilliant result! All the players played really well. New signings are great. Loving Lisbie and Earthy and good to see Marriott and Browne score again 💙