Nigel Clough felt Mansfield were mentally sloppy during their hard-fought 3-2 win over Swindon and warned his players they cannot afford to let errors creep in at this stage of the season.
Looking to bounce back from their 2-1 midweek defeat to MK Dons, Mansfield were quickly out of the blocks and took a fourth-minute lead through Lucas Akins as well as going close through Hiram Boateng, Davis Keillor-Dunn and Akins, who clipped the post.
But the League Two leaders could not add to their lead and were pegged back to 2-2 by the hour mark so Swindon duo Paul Glatzel and Aaron Drinan struck either side of a Keillor-Dunn goal.
Mansfield were not level for long though, Will Swan netting soon after coming on as a 65th minute substitute to make it 3-2, and the home side held on to remain three points clear at the top of the table.
However, Clough knows his side should have made things much more comfortable for themselves at One Call Stadium.
He said: “We made hard work of it.
“We should have got more goals in the opening 10-15 minutes. That was a good opportunity for us, they have some very dangerous players as we saw who can hurt you.
“We were sloppy today, mentally more than anything, after three games in a week.
“We got the early goal and should have gone again. The chances were there in that first period. We could have put the game to bed, there are no mistakes at this stage of the season.
“Davis (Keillor-Dunn) should be doing more with the situations he got into today to get the second goal.
“I know he has got 18 goals but he is getting the ball in the right areas and he is choosing the wrong option.
“He is not doing what he did for the second goal. He dropped his shoulder and it was a wonderful finish. He has been in that position six or seven times today and that is the only time he tried it, I don’t understand why he is laying it off.”
Swindon’s interim head coach Gavin Gunning was frustrated by his side’s slow start as the Robins slumped to a 15th defeat of the season.
“It is a frustrating result,” he said. “There are so many positives, but a defeat is a defeat.
“When you concede goals that are a horror show like that it is a frustrating afternoon.
“We were chasing things after the opening five minutes. Once we grew into the game it was much of a muchness.
“Swan was unmarked for their winner, that is just having the desire to get close and have contact with him in the box. We work on that all week and getting tight to players.
“The first five/10 minutes we were all over the place and then we grew into it and had our moments.
“It is frustrating. It is tough to get the words out, we went toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in the league, but we conceded some horror show goals.
“We score and then switch off. We didn’t mark in the box and we conceded, it’s simple.”