Eight changes were made to the team, with one of them, James Gale, scoring a brace inside three minutes as Stags battled to an interesting victory.
Rovers had recovered admirably from their early setback as Callum Johnson scored with two minutes remaining.
“It was a balancing act to try and get minutes into players who needed it,” the Stags manager remarked.
“George Williams was outstanding for 90 minutes and performed admirably. He had to be brave and defend himself one on one.
“He made a spectacular block at 2-2 to keep us in the game with about five minutes to go.”
“All night, I thought James Gale was a pain.” McKeal Abdullah had a fantastic debut against League Two defenders; their centre half plays every week, so it was a bit of a baptism of fire for him because he is not playing against players his own age.
“With the way it started, it could have been 8-8.” They had chances in the opening ten minutes, and we scored two and should have scored more, and it was the same story the rest of the night.
“At first, everyone is aware that it is an EFL Trophy game, but it quickly turns into a proper game because no one wants to lose.” Nobody was taking things lightly.
“Throughout the game, we didn’t make nearly enough of our opportunities.”
Will Swan could have had three or four goals and only managed one, but it’s wonderful to remain unblemished and win the game.”
Clough was also pleased to have had the opportunity to rest important players ahead of this weekend’s huge East Midlands derby at Meadow Lane.
“Louis Reed, Davis Keillor-Dunn and Lucas Akins have had the night off and Flinty (Aden Flint) has only had 20 mins running around front,” the coach stated.
“You saw tired legs last weekend and tonight, so we’ll rest before Saturday.” It’s now time to recover, with a light practice planned for Friday.
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