Mansfield Town boss wary of the potential threat of under-achieving Peterborough United
Clough has called academy graduate striker Ricky-Jade Jones one of the greatest in the division when he’s playing well, and he thinks 16th-placed Posh are in a false position in League One. With 12 goals this season, Jones is now the Posh’s leading scorer in all competitions.
Clough told the Mansfield Chad, “It is not surprising to be inconsistent when you had such a good season as they did last season and then you sell major players like they have.”
“They brought in millions in the summer which is their model. It is almost a cycle every couple of seasons. The young players they have brought in will be benefiting from the time on the pitch.
“I would really fancy them, if not for this season then next season. When they click I think they are as exciting and as dangerous as any team in the league.
We have got to really concentrate on Boxing Day, three or four passes and they can be through you. They keep passing and keep playing and looking to get in with their pace. Considering the business they did in the summer they are doing extremely well.”
Stags go into the game having snapped a seven game winless run following a 1-0 victory over Rotherham United at the weekend, but Clough is expecting a different type of challenge as they look to stifle the free-flowing football of Posh.
“We have to defend as well as we did on Saturday,” he added. “But it will be a different sort of challenge. Saturday was about defending free-kicks and physicality.
Peterborough try and play through you and use their pace of the front three. (Kwame) Poku is out, which is good for us, but on his day Ricky Jade-Jones is as good as there is in the league.
We tried to play at Barnsley on the first day and we have tried to do that all season. I want us to continue in that vein and do our stuff.
The quality of the teams we are playing is high in the next four games, it is a tough run, but the one thing we have learned in the first 19 games is that we can compete if we do everything well and everyone does their job.”
Mansfield, who won automatic promotion from League Two last season, go into the Boxing Day clash six places and four points ahead of Posh and they have a game in hand.
