Nigel Clough salutes Oliver Irow’s ‘brilliant’ debut during Mansfield’s victory

Mansfield boss Nigel Clough hailed a spectacular debut from teenage Tottenham loanee Oliver Irow as his brace helped seal a hard-earned 3-0 home win over bottom club Port Vale.

Irow was making his senior debut and broke the deadlock after the break before Will Evans added a second and the teenager curled in a spectacular third.

He only joined Mansfield last week, and Clough said: “Oliver has shown his quality and composure in training so we thought why not give him a little run, though we never expected him to score twice.

“But his finishes in training have been very similar to that. His second goal was absolutely outstanding. No goalkeeper in the world would save that.

“His mum, dad and girlfriend were here today to see him make his league debut on his first loan and it’s a brilliant start for him.

“To win 3-0 was probably a little undeserved, but there have been plenty of times this season we have not got what we deserved, and I think we are still a few in credit.

“It was tough going and I thought first half we were as poor as we’ve been for some time.

“Port Vale were very good indeed and I thought Liam Roberts was the only reason we were still in the game at half-time.

“It took a bit of magic from Rhys Oates to get us that first goal. When you are not playing well you need someone to provide you with a spark.”

Port Vale had the edge in the first half and Devante Cole hit a home post after 18 minutes while Jordan Shipley sent a shot into the side-netting, and just before half-time goalkeeper Liam Roberts won a one-on-one dual with Dajaune Brown after Cole had sent him through.

Stags were much improved after the break and interval substitue Irow broke through after 55 minutes, tucking away the follow-up after Ben Amos had saved well from Oates.

Four minutes later, Will Evans turned home a loose ball from close range after Amos had parried a low Oates shot.

Irow scored the goal of the game in the 67th minute as he curled a magnificent finish over Amos into the far top corner from the left of the box.

New Port Vale boss Jon Brady said: “It was a very good first half, but we were not clinical enough with our chances.

“We have worked today to pull them apart, which we did first half and dominated possession. And we opened them up with three excellent chances with really good play and we have to be more clinical in those moments.

“Second half we lost too many duels and it was way too easy for Mansfield to score. So there are things we have to tighten up on.

“We have to improve our defending if we want to climb out of this situation we are in.”