Wrexham must fear Mansfield Town revenge mission after Nigel Clough’s comments earlier in the season
Every team wants to beat Wrexham and bring down the Hollywood dream, but Mansfield Town boss Nigel Clough has a specific reason for wanting the win today.
Wrexham are desperate for a win themselves, after another home defeat in midweek against Leyton Orient hampered the Red Dragons’ push for automatic promotion.
We can’t wait to watch Wrexham vs Mansfield Town, as Phil Parkinson’s men look to bounce back and capitalise on a decent set of results from the weekend already, with rivals Birmingham and Wycombe dropping points on Saturday.
But, while Mansfield are currently treading water in midtable, there is extra added incentive for the Stags to take all three points from this next game.
Nigel Clough is fed up of referee’s favouring Wrexham
When the two teams met in November, Wrexham secured a narrow 1-0 win in a ‘tough’ game at home thanks to an early Ryan Barnett goal.
Speaking after the game, Mansfield manager Nigel Clough lamented poor refereeing on the day that he felt cost his team.
Clough suggested his team were denied “a very, very good shout for a penalty” during the game, which led to a “mixed message” from the officials when Clough questioned the decision to ignore the claims.
That incident followed Wrexham being awarded a penalty in the League Two clash between the two teams back in March of last year in controversial circumstances.
Clough clearly feels his team are on the wrong end of things, particularly when travelling to Wales, as he added: “It’s a bit of deja vu having played well here last year. We don’t seem to get a decision here or anything go our way, certainly, but hopefully that will change in the future.”
It seems, then, that Clough has tried to plant the seeds for referees to consider their decisions in this fixture a little more moving forward. Could that implicit criticism have seeped into the mind of referee Matt Corlett for today’s game?
Wrexham have to use unlikely advantage against Mansfield
Just a month ago, it appeared Wrexham’s poor away form was going to cost them promotion, while their unbeaten record at the Racecourse Ground was keeping them in the title race.
Now, the opposite is true, with Wrexham losing back-to-back league games at home, while managing to win two on the bounce on the road.
That will suit the Red Dragons down to the ground ahead of this fixture as they look to spoil the party at Field Mill today, but it is a problem Parkinson needs to sort out in the long-run, of course.
Wrexham have a chance to close the gap between second-placed Wycombe to three points again today, and if they are to have any hopes of securing that automatic promotion spot, they really do need to dispatch teams like Mansfield regardless of home or away advantage.
