Crewe boss Lee Bell was delighted to see his side end Mansfield’s unbeaten home record and strengthen their own promotion claims.
Joe White’s finish just over a minute into the game proved enough for Bell to make a winning return to his former club and prevent them going top of League Two.
And a second win of the week moved Alex to within five points of the automatic promotion places.
“That was a really hard-fought three points,” said Bell, who spent a year of his playing career with the Stags.
“We had to ride our luck at times which has been missing. But we didn’t give away any real clear-cut opportunities.
“Mansfield have not lost at home since April so this was a fantastic three points.
“Our gameplan worked for large parts and the players carried out their instructions without the football to a tee.
“The effort, fire and desire we showed was frightening. That’s what you need to do when you come to Mansfield. For me they are the best team in the league and have a bit of everything.
“We defended our box brilliantly to a man, blocking crosses, not allowing their man to get across us and the keeper coming up with saves when needed.
“We stood up to everything on the physical side, so credit to the players for showing another side to a Crewe team that I don’t think we have seen for a long time.”
Mansfield were punished for trying to play the ball out of their box under pressure after 75 seconds as they lost possession and Newcastle loanee White drilled home a low finish.
Lucas Akins should have quickly levelled but sent a free header wide from eight yard.
After that Crewe defended magnificently and goalkeeper Tom Booth saved superbly from George Maris and Stephen Quinn in the first half and, crucially, tipped over a Baily Cargill free-kick in stoppage time.
Mansfield boss Nigel Clough was upset by the early goal conceded and said: “We are bitterly disappointed to lose for only the second time in 24 games or not get even a point. Sometimes even a point at home is a good result.
“The goal we conceded after 90 seconds or so cost us the game today.
“I don’t know if complacency is the word, or sloppiness crept in.
“The reason we have the best defensive record in the league is that we don’t give goals away like that.
“The ball is in our penalty area, it goes away – it’s cleared, no second thoughts or questions whether it’s 90 seconds in or 90 seconds to go.
“That has been our principle and why we haven’t conceded.
“Maybe one or two are getting carried away with the result last week at Stockport. We certainly weren’t staff-wise. And we knew this would be a harder game in lots of ways.
“They are a good team in the top seven.
“I thought we were OK after the first 20 minutes and controlled the game.
“We put an awful lot of balls in the box and won a lot of corners. We just needed someone to finish one off or a break in the six-yard box which we didn’t get today.
“I think we deserved to level. But when you give any team a 1-0 lead almost from the start of the game it doesn’t half incentivise them and give them something to hang on to.”
Verona 0-5 Inter: Five-star visitors go top of Serie A
Inter hammered lowly Verona 5-0 away from home on Saturday to move top of the Serie A table, with all five goals coming in the first half.
The hosts could easily have taken the lead through Casper Tengstedt just six minutes in as he struck the post after causing chaos in the box, but Inter sparked to life after that.
Joaquin Correa rattled the crossbar moments later, and then opened the scoring after 17 minutes, finishing off a lovely team move by chipping Lorenzo Montipo.
Having set up the opener, Marcus Thuram added a quick-fire double; twice in three minutes, he took the goalkeeper out of the game with clever play before picking out the back of the net.
Substitute Stefan de Vrij fired their fourth past Montipo before Yann Bisseck managed to pick out the top corner despite initially tripping over the ball in the 41st minute.
The second half was a subdued affair, though Correa almost scored another, but instead smacked the crossbar for a second time.
Inter leapfrogged Napoli, who do not play until Sunday, as they moved into first with 28 points. Verona are 14th on 12 points.
Data Debrief: Full-throttle first half
It was a pretty much perfect first half from Simone Inzaghi's side, and it gave the manager a chance to rest some key players with a Champions League tie ahead of them in midweek.
Inter scored five goals in the first half of an away league game for only the second time in their history in Serie A - after the 5-1 score against Sampdoria in the first 45 minutes of play back in March 1964.
The visitors scored with all five of their shots on target in the first period and outperformed their 2.79 expected goals (xG) by some margin.
Correa has scored in a Serie A game 756 days after his last goal in the top-flight, on 29th October 2022, against Sampdoria, at Meazza. Meanwhile, all three of his away goals have come against Verona at Bentegodi.
Chelsea not focused on Liverpool and Man City, insists Jackson after Leicester win
Chelsea are not getting carried away by talk of a title challenge following their 2-1 win over Leicester City, according to striker Nicolas Jackson.
Jackson netted his seventh Premier League goal of the season and was joined on the scoresheet by Enzo Fernandez on Saturday, as Enzo Maresca got one over on his former club at the King Power Stadium.
The result lifted the Blues to 22 points in third, just one adrift of champions Manchester City in second and six behind leaders Liverpool.
Speaking to TNT Sports after the game, Jackson said: "We know the months of November and December have a lot of games, so we just try to recover for the next one and go again.
"I saw the danger, then the ball came to Enzo, he gave it to me and he finished. I'm just working in every game to try to help the team win."
Asked if Chelsea were now thinking of themselves as title challengers, he added: "No, we don't look at the teams in front of us, we just try to win every game."
Five of Jackson's goals this season have come on the road, the most of any player in the Premier League.
Since the start of May, only Erling Haaland (18) has bettered Jackson's 11 goals in the competition overall.
Leicester got a stoppage-time consolation through Jordan Ayew's penalty, though they earlier felt aggrieved not to be awarded a spot-kick when Stephy Mavididi was seemingly felled by Wesley Fofana in the 85th minute.
Boss Steve Cooper lamented that call, saying: "We've had some terrible luck with this referee. That continued today.
"There's also the game to talk about. Tough first half in terms of Chelsea territory and dominance with the ball. We gave away a poor goal. It should have been 0-0.
"Defensively we were generally okay. We need to be showing courage and belief. If we do that we can create chances and be a threat.
"The big moment is the first penalty not given, it's clear what happened there. The second one was offside [before VAR] and you see how onside he was.
"That was the story of the officials' game. You can speak to them after 30 minutes. I'm not sure if I will or won't."
'It's an honour' - Flick delighted by Messi's Barcelona praise
Hansi Flick says it is an "honour" to hear Lionel Messi praise Barcelona's start to the season.
Flick took over as Barcelona head coach in May, with the club making an impressive start to LaLiga, as they sit top on 33 points after 13 matches.
They have won 11 of their games, losing the other two, while they are sixth in the Champions League table, just three points behind leaders Liverpool.
Messi, who spent 17 years at Barcelona before leaving to join Paris Saint-Germain in 2021, recently described Flick's team as "spectacular", in particular lauding his use of young players in the team.
The German has not shied away from using academy players during his time at Barcelona so far, with Lamine Yamal the standout of the bunch after he carried last season's form into this campaign.
Yamal is the only player across Europe's big five leagues to complete 25+ dribbles (34), create 25+ chances (26), have 25+ shots (39), score 5+ goals (five) and provide 5+ assists (seven).
When asked how he felt about Messi's comments, Flick was delighted.
"It's an honour to hear the best player in history say that he likes this Barca," he told reporters.
"He follows the team closely, he has his heart set on this club, that means a lot to the youngsters and to the team."
Barcelona return to LaLiga action when they travel to Celta Vigo on Saturday, looking to extend their lead at the top of the league.
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