The son of renowned manager Brian Clough, Nigel has just completed a full calendar year with Mansfield Town as manager having joined the club in November 2020.
Clough has a reputation for taking teams to higher divisions with Burton Albion his standout achievement guiding them to a second place Sky Bet League One finish in 2016, and gaining the club promotion to the Championship for the first time in the club’s history. He also served managerial spells at Derby County and Sheffield United. Before his departure from the Rams in September 2013, he held the distinction of being the club’s longest-serving manager in having been appointed manager in January 2009.
As a player, Clough’s career spanned 24 years, with the majority of his playing time taking place at Nottingham Forest, where he featured in more than 300 games and tallied more than 100 goals between 1984 and 1993. After leaving Forest, Clough served spells at Liverpool (1993-96), Manchester City (1996-98), on-loan with Sheffield Wednesday (1997) and, finally, Burton Albion (1998-2008).
Internationally, Clough served the England men’s National Team from 1999 until 2003, being capped 14 times for his country.
Manager Nigel Clough spoke to the media ahead of this weekend’s tie…
On his team’s performance last time out against Crawley Town:
“It was nice to get that sixth win out of the last seven games, and get us back on track, winning two out of our last three away games now. We could’ve stayed unbeaten this week with a couple of draws, but we’re a point better off with the two wins.”
On the test provided by Doncaster Rovers:
“They [Rovers] are much better at home than they are away from home if you look at their record. We’re playing a team from the league above [and] on their own patch, they’re not [doing] too badly. We are going for wins [and] not to be defensive. We’re trying to win every game – that’s the aim.”
On needing the fans against Doncaster Rovers:
“Our following will be absolutely key [to winning the game]. It’s wonderful the amount of tickets we’ve sold. It gives everybody [a boost]. We’ve been talking about [the following] in training last week, that we’d sold over 2,500 [tickets], going towards 3,000.
“It’s certainly a bit closer for everybody to get to [after two long away journeys at Sutton and Crawley last week].”
On the excitement of playing teams from higher divisions in the FA Cup:
“I think the second round for a lower-league club is very exciting because of what it can bring. To get a draw against a higher club, after the win at Sunderland [is exciting]. We’ll go [there] and have a go.”