The birds are singing and the rain has abated. Nigel Clough and his wife, Margaret, are taking their dog, Bobbie, for a long peaceful walk around the beautiful Derbyshire reservoir of Carsington Water. Looming on the horizon for the Mansfield manager is an FA Cup fifth-round tie at home to Arsenal but Clough knows the importance of staying, as he puts it, in the “real world”.
The TNT cameras and global media will home in on Field Mill on Saturday lunchtime as the Premier League leaders visit the second lowest-ranked survivors in the competition that Brian Clough, Nigel’s legendary father, famously never lifted. Clough Jr will have his League One players prepared and organised but would prefer to eschew the fanfare. After Mansfield’s memorable win at Burnley in the last round, he left post-match media duties to Andy Garner, his assistant. “I just went to see the kids,” he says. “The away fans were coming out right next to the changing rooms, so I thought I might just catch them on the way out.”
