Mansfield Town skipper Ollie Clarke prepares for two long hauls south after two-goal display today

Mansfield Town skipper Ollie Clarke knows how strength-sapping the week ahead will be with long hauls south to Sutton United and Crawley Town inside five days.
Captain Ollie Clarke runs towards the Mansfield fans after netting his second goal of the match at the One Call Stadium today. Photo by: Chris Holloway / The Bigger Picture.mediaCaptain Ollie Clarke runs towards the Mansfield fans after netting his second goal of the match at the One Call Stadium today. Photo by: Chris Holloway / The Bigger Picture.media
Captain Ollie Clarke runs towards the Mansfield fans after netting his second goal of the match at the One Call Stadium today. Photo by: Chris Holloway / The Bigger Picture.media

But after beating bottom club Scunthorpe for a fifth win in a row today, he said: “We are improving, we are getting fitter and stronger. It's nice to have a bit of continuity after all the injuries.

“We know it's going to be a tough week on the road.

“But we will rest up, get on the bus and travel down Monday for Sutton.

“Then we head back down again on Friday for Crawley. “It is what it is. You always have one of these weeks in football where it's like the 'death' week with so much travelling to do.

“But everyone is positive and happy in there, the tunes are flying – it's nice to have a buzz around the place again.

“We are going into games thinking we're going to win now. Everyone has a spring in their step.”

On the game itself, he added: “We dominated the majority of the game with a couple of scares at our end.

“But we created the majority of the chances and should probably have had a couple more in the grand scheme of things.

“We ran the midfield today.”

Clarke bagged a brace with one for Jordan Bowery.

On his first, he said: “I have scored a couple of those in training this week.

“As soon as I hit it I saw it was going towards the bottom corner and I was hoping the goalie wasn't going to get down in time. It's always nice to see the net ripple.

“The second was good pressing on our behalf and I just managed to nick it off their player 10-15 yards outside the box and drive into the box and slide under the goalie.”