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Andrew Aloia, BBC Sport, East MidlandsandDave Bracegirdle, BBC Radio Nottingham
The sight of Premier League leaders Arsenal triumphantly trudging from the muddy One Call Stadium pitch on Saturday left Mansfield Town boss Nigel Clough with a "nagging feeling" of regret of an FA Cup upset that never was.
It was the team valued at almost £420m that saw out the victory against a Stags side that are two divisions and 59 places below them in the English football pyramid.
It took goals from England internationals Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze - a pair that cost the Gunners almost £110m to recruit last summer, more than all the transfer money that the Stags have spent in 129 years of existence - to edge Mikel Arteta's side past their lowly League One hosts.
Will Evans, a player who admits he prioritised working on his family farm growing up rather than watch FA Cup matches, had levelled the tie early in the second half of a game that the unfancied Stags rattled their illustrious opponents.
The 11 shots Mansfield had against Arsenal in the first half was the most the Gunners had faced in the first 45 minutes of a match in all competitions since April 2022.
Doing what Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, and Real Madrid - as well as Manchester City and the rest of their Premier League rivals - had failed to do for nearly four years was reason enough to make Clough "incredibly proud" of the performance.
But there was one emotion that overrode it all.
"We are just left with that little nagging doubt that we could have done it [upstaged Arsenal]," Clough told BBC Radio Nottingham.
"We were a bit surprised with how many situations and chances we had. And yes they did as well, of course they did, and it was inevitable with the quality they had on the pitch."
Mansfield Town's Will Evans tries to connect with a cross during the Emirates FA Cup fifth round match against Arsenal at One Call StadiumPA Media
While Clough could still casually admit that the tie was "closer than anticipated", he also revealed that he was stuck by a sense that something special could happen while walking his pet dog Bobbie on Saturday morning.
"I quite fancied us to cause an upset and we were pretty close to it," Clough said.
"If things had gone our way, we might have taken it to extra time and you never know from there. I don't enjoy losing, but enjoyed the experience."
Clough said it helped that the 9,260 that packed the One Call Stadium was shown early on that Mansfield would take the game Arsenal.
Rhys Oates and Louis Reed both tested Gunners goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga early on, while Tyler Roberts fired a curling effort just wide in the first half.
"We gave the crowd reasons to get behind us," Clough said.
"Right from the start of the game we didn't want to sit back and make it a game where Arsenal just dictated it, had 80% possession and picked us off.
"We wanted to have a go, to get up against them and try close them down, and I thought we did that as much as we could throughout the game."
Eze scores winner as Arsenal avoid scare at Mansfield Town
Watch FA Cup highlights and analysis
How much Mansfield made Arsenal work is something the Gunners players were only too happy to talk to their resilient rivals about after the game.
While Evans started his conversation with Eze and Gabriel Martinelli about asking how the One Call Stadium pitch might compare to the one at their Emirates Stadium home in north London, the chat very quickly turned to the standard of the Stags performance.
"They just couldn't believe how well we did." Evans said. "They were full of compliments, [Christian] Norgaard was the same and had great great things to say.
"That in itself, when are you getting the respect of opposition players from a club like Arsenal, is as good as it gets."
Related topics
League One
FA Cup
Football
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