'Throwing money at it' - Mansfield Town boss Nigel Clough takes swipe at Chesterfield ahead of bitter derby
Mansfield Town manager Nigel Clough has taken a swipe at Chesterfield’s budget ahead of Tuesday night’s big derby game, saying the Spireites have been ‘throwing money at it for a few years.’
The Spireites and the Stags clash for the first time in seven years when they meet in the Carabao Cup first round at the SMH Group Stadium. The bitter rivalry will be played out in front of close to a sell-out, with the fixture dominating talk amonst expectant fans ever since the draw was made.
Clough, who has been in charge at Field Mill for almost five years, guided them to promotion to League One in 2024 and they managed to avoid relegation in their first season at that level. The Spireites will be hoping to follow them into the third-tier come next May.
On Chesterfield, he said: "They have brought in an awful lot of players. They just missed out in the play-offs last year and they will be trying to get promoted this year. I think they are one of the favourites and probably rightly so. They have been throwing money at it for a few years now. I think they had a bigger budget when they were in the Conference than most League One sides. They lost nearly £70,000 a week to win the Conference so it shows what they are throwing at it.”
However, in response to Clough’s comments, it is probably worth noting that seven other clubs in League Two had bigger budgets than Chesterfield last season. And all of the clubs in League One last season had bigger budgets.
Mansfield have lost both of their opening two games so far in the new campaign and Clough admitted he is still tweaking things. Because of the nature of the game, he says he will be naming a full strength side. It could be mind games, but he said they picked up a number of injuries in Saturday’s late defeat to Doncaster Rovers.
"It means more than a normal first round game,” he explained. “With the local rivalry at stake, without a doubt it means more. We will put the best team out to try to win the game. There won’t be any sort of resting people or anything like that.”
The 59-year-old would have preferred to have home advantage but there will be 1,000 Mansfield fans in a small section of the East Stand. With the teams having not met since 2018, it should prove to be an electric atmosphere.
He added: "I wish we were at home, I wish we had our home fans behind us, but we have got to go there and fight and scrap and see if we can get a result. I think the tickets were like gold dust. The teams have not met for a few years. Having been involved in games between Derby and Forest over the years, I think it will be very similar to that.”