No disappointment for Mansfield Town boss Nigel Clough as Barrow deny promoted Stags second place

Wrexham's home win over champions Stockport County saw them leapfrog over Stags at the death and Clough said: “There is just a tinge of disappointment, but when you look over the last 46 games we can't have any disappointment at all.

“We've achieved what we set out to do and we've finished third by a couple of points in the company of Stockport and Wrexham. It's been incredible.”

Stags went ahead through George Maris at Barrow, who needed a win to make the play-offs, but were pegged back by a Kian Spence equaliser.

“We still tried to win the game at Barrow, professionally you have to,” said Clough.

“Barrow threw the kitchen sink at us second half as you'd expect as they needed to win the game.

“But I was a bit disappointed we didn't go on to win in the last five minutes when they had so many people forward.

“We had five or six great situations late on and were entitled to go on and win the game and would have got second place.

“We set out with one aim from the end of last season when we had that win over Colchester but missed out on the play-offs by one goal.

“We said right – one aim. Let's get up this year, automatic if we can, and we've done it.

“And we said at the start of the season, how good League Two was going to be this season. You look at the quality of sides that have gone down, plus sides like Barrow that have missed out on the play-offs. It is a very, very strong league.

“There will be a lot of big teams in League One next year, so to do it in that sort of company and do it in the manner we've done it is pleasing.”

Stags were followed by another huge army of 980 fans and Clough said: “We have tried to entertain and score goals home and away and it's lovely to see the same faces among the supporters again today when we went over to them.

“They have travelled all over the country supporting us this year and I think they've have a good time like we have.

“It was good not have pressure on the last game and I feel sorry for Barrow, being in that situation where you need that goal and it's just not to be, so it's lovely to have got it done last week with a few games to spare.

“It was great for fans to be able to come here with no pressure and be able to enjoy the last day.

“Imagine in that last five or 10 minutes or whatever we still needed a point, it would have been excruciating.

“So it was lovely to get it done early so supporters could come up and enjoy it today.”

He added: “The players have had a good week or two enjoying it, but I said to them, we'll enjoy it more in the next couple of weeks when we sit down and look back and reflect a little bit. We'll enjoy it much more in the next few months.

“We used missing out last year as fuel for this year and I'm sure Barrow will do the same next season.

“These last few games they've come up short, but they are one of the best sides we've played.”

Clough now begins planning his squad for next season.

“We've said all along we want to add six or seven players, something like that, to the squad,” he said.

“It's very important to keep the majority of the squad together to keep the spirit and camaraderie that's developed over the last two or three seasons.

“So you keep that intact and add six or seven genuine players who can start and make a difference in League One.

“We're not talking about 14 or 15 players with that spirit this season - it's been the whole lot.

“The injured lads are up here with us today and some of them have contributed this season like Elliott Hewitt coming back and getting us that all-important equaliser at MK Dons.

“Even those that haven't really played, they've made a good contribution because that's the spirit that's got us through at times this season.”