You can see confidence dwindling - Clough

Boss Nigel Clough says the losing run Mansfield Town are on is draining his side of confidence.

Tuesday's 1-0 home defeat by relegation battling Crawley Town was the fourth successive loss the Stags have suffered.

It is a run that has seen Clough's side knocked out of the FA Cup and drop from ninth to 12th in the table.

"You can see our confidence is dwindling by the minute at the moment," Clough told BBC Radio Nottingham.

"I thought we were good value for a draw tonight and they played well in spells in the second half."

An opportunistic late goal from Ade Adeyemo, as he pounced on Mansfield goalkeeper Christy Pym's inability to hold on to a Will Swan shot, was the difference as Crawley ended their seven-match winless run with the narrow victory at the One Call Stadium.

"It's just ironic that Christy makes a mistake when he has been absolutely immaculate," Clough said.

"He made two or three brilliant saves then spills the easy one, which cost us the game.

"It's one of those where you want to get out of the game without losing, just to stop the run of defeats."

With Mansfield in just their first season back in the third tier for 21 years, Clough says difficult runs were to be expected.

They endured a similarly rough period in November and December when they lost five consecutive league games.

That particular run was brought to an end with a draw at Charlton, which was then followed by four wins in five matches.

"We just have to scrap and fight like we did at Charlton to get points and stop the rot," Clough said.