Sparky is happy to be back

Bradford 0 Mansfield 2

MARK HUGHES said he loved every minute of his return to management despite seeing Bradford lose.

Rhys Oates and Matty Longstaff were on target for Mansfield, but Hughes did not let that dampen his enthusiasm too much.

Hughes said: “I loved every minute of it. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in charge of a group of players on a matchday at 3pm on Saturday. I really enjoyed it, notwithstanding the result obviously.

“It was a great atmosphere. Mansfield came in numbers as well and made a good noise but our fans were great. They stuck with us.

They are disappointed obviously as we all are but I think they understand it’s a process we’re going through and we’ll get better.

“I saw things I was encouraged by, other things less so.

“But it’s about making sure we emphasize the elements of our play we need to improve.”

Nigel Clough said: “We deserved to win, overall.

“We had enough situations in the first 20 minutes and should have scored in that period, but

then we scored a brilliant goal just before half-time.

“We said to them at half-time ‘do everything to silence the crowd at the start of the second half’ and we did that by scoring the second goal.”