Ex-Sheffield United boss marks 25th year in management with latest promotion

Former Sheffield United boss Nigel Clough is celebrating promotion once more after leading Mansfield Town out of League Two. Mansfield secured their spot in next season's third tier, alongside Stockport County and Wrexham, with a 2-1 win over Accrington Stanley at Field Mill on Tuesday night with another ex-Blade Stephen Quinn scoring the decisive goal of the game.

The Stags have been in League Two for over a decade, but it's been a season to remember for the Nottinghamshire outfit, with Clough helping them to compete with some of the richest clubs in the division. Clough has won the League Two manager of the year award for his efforts and in his 25th year in management he can now add another promotion to his CV, with two games to spare this season, having previously helped Burton Albion through the leagues.

Mansfield can't win the title, with Stockport being too far out in front to catch, but they'll now be looking to enter League One in style with games against Gillingham and Barrow still to play.

"It's a huge relief to get over the line," Clough said, per the BBC. "We didn't want it to go to Saturday and possibly the week after going to Barrow. The MK Dons result from Saturday gave us that incentive to get it done tonight. We had a couple of chances in the first half to double our lead then Quinny did that. It was ideal getting that early goal, it settled everybody down.

"I think people were expecting a bit of an avalanche of goals after that, but football is not like that. The main thing is we got the three points, another win and have gone second in the league and we are there."

The game was Clough's 200th in charge of Mansfield after joining the club in November 2020. The Stags are the fourth club Clough has managed, having had two spells at Burton, with stints at Derby County and Sheffield United coming in between.

Clough had a season and a half with the Blades and led the club to the semi-finals of both the League Cup and the FA Cup, but he couldn't help them out of League One before his departure in May 2015.