Brian Clough's son Nigel still relying on his dad's principles on incredible Mansfield Town run

Dan Salisbury-Jones has been speaking to Mansfield Town manager Nigel Clough, who will this season overtake his famous dad Brian's record of being in charge of one thousand four hundred and fifty three matches.

Mansfield Town manager Nigel Clough says he still relies on his dad Brian's 'principles' as he leads the Stags on an incredible run.

Arsenal are the only other club in the top four divisions yet to lose a game in any competition.

Clough's men have gone 13 games without defeat, they sit fifth in League Two and are in the last 16 of the Carabao Cup.

With a beaming smile, he told me:

"It's good company to be in. I'm not sure too many people would've thought that at the start of the season."

Nigel started management in 1998 at Burton Albion and admits he's had to make some major changes over the years.

He said: "Well, society is different first of all, and then it all filters down from there.

"You have to be aware of players' fragilities and things like that a little bit more than you did 25 years ago.

"I think people were a little bit more resilient and young people were a little bit more resilient 25 years ago.

"And if you only go back a few years before that when we played, we certainly were more resilient mentally and physically.

"But that's the way that society and the world is moving. So you have to try and adapt to that."

He could be forgiven for being prickly about questions about his famous father as Nigel has more than proved himself in his own right.

I wondered if there was a ever moment when he felt free from his influence ?

He says: "I don't think I'll ever be free of it now.

"It lessons a little bit but the memories are all still there and the principles are still there as well.

"The principles that he put in place don't change. You're still looking for the discipline on the football pitch and you're still looking for standards and certain things for the players, that sort of thing.

"How you go about imposing that, that's probably changed, but not the standards themselves."

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This season Nigel is set to break his dad's record of 1,453 games in management but he's not sure at what point.

He says: "Not a clue, [I'm] a lot of trophies off him I know that. I don't think I'll ever catch up in terms of that!"

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