Mk Dons

Dons were smarting from Saturday’s defeat by rivals AFC Wimbledon but bolstered their promotion hopes as Stags lost at home for only the second time this season.

“I thought it was a fantastic game between two good teams and you could see from the first whistle that both sides wanted to win,” said Williamson.

“I thought we showed every area of our character today and we played as much as we were allowed.

“We were under a lot of pressure as they are a really high-intensity, hard-working team. And we had to put bodies on the line as well.

“It was a good response from Saturday’s defeat and that is what these players are about and the chemistry they have in there.

“We had to play with a lot of courage and bravery today.

“Ultimately we had to respect who we are playing – they are top of the league for a reason. So I am proud of the boys tonight. They all put a real shift in.”

Mansfield went ahead after 15 minutes when MJ Williams’ handball gifted them a penalty.

Michael Kelly kept out Lucas Akins’ spot-kick and he then also saved the former Burton forward’s follow-up but could not stop Stephen Quinn burying the loose ball at the third time of asking.

However, five minutes later Lewis Brunt’s powerful header unluckily hit the onrushing Alex Gilbey who raced onto the gift and crashed home a fine 20-yard finish.

The winner came on 54 minutes through Matthew Dennis, who had cleared an Aden Flint header off the line and missed a six yard header in the first half.

He cut in from the left and saw his low finish take a deflection past Christy Pym.

Mansfield manager Nigel Clough said: “I don’t think we got a break tonight playing against an extremely good team – technically they are probably the best in the league.

“But I thought we were a bit unlucky with both goals tonight.

“For the first Lewis Brunt won a brilliant header and it just went straight to their lad off his thigh into his path and he’s put a great finish in.

“For the second Louis Reed’s had a shot from outside the box, it’s been blocked and gone in their lad’s path again and they have broken away and scored.

“There was bags of effort tonight but not a break. The lads gave absolutely everything.

“It took us three go’s to score from a penalty which probably summed up the night after scoring 14 goals here in the last couple of home games. We were maybe due one of these sorts of days.”

Former Dons player Louie Barry scored his fifth goal of the season for the visitors before the home side equalised through Mo Eisa.

Stockport went back in front on the stroke of half-time though through Nick Powell and this time there was no way back for the hosts.

Alexander said: “The first half cost us. There was no intensity, no speed or no commitment to what we’ve been doing of late.

“We can’t lie to anybody and think we deserved anything from that game today.

“The way we started was really slow, took too many touches and delayed everything.

“If you don’t commit as hard as you have to in professional football, you get beat.

“The game was there for us as a team after last week’s performance, but we just didn’t get going in the first half.

“In the second half, there was an increase in intensity, but we didn’t trouble the goalkeeper or their goal enough to get anything from the game. The right team won today.

“I’m raw because I’m frustrated that a group of players who have done so well so far this season have not got anywhere near the levels we have done in previous games.”

Stockport manager Dave Challinor praised his players as built on their 2-1 win over AFC Wimbledon.

The two wins have followed a sticky start to the season, leaving Challinor delighted with the way his side have bounced back.

“We should take more confidence from the fact of how we went about it,” said Challinor

“Two big wins, especially on the back of what we’d had previously and especially on the back of being a little bit scarred, I suppose, by some of the games earlier on.

“To get those confidence-boosting wins like we have is massively important going into a massive game next week.

“The easiest thing for us today would be potentially to have gone 3-5-2 to match the systems and it becomes who’s better at the system. But we thought we can tweak the system in terms of pushing Powell higher up to become a 4-3-3.

“I’d like to think we can be adaptable. We’ve got the personnel to play as a four and as a three, but it’s ultimately about winning football matches and we’ve won the last two in fractionally different types of that formation, asking different questions of the opposition.”