Mansfield never recovered from conceding two goals in the opening five minutes and a late third goal confirmed a decisive defeat.

After starting the season with five wins and five defeats, manager Paul Cox said: ““We have now won five and lost five. Not many clubs have won more than us, but we need to start turning some of those losses into draws.

“I won’t get too down. I know these things are going to happen this season. We have made a half-decent start to the season. The main thing now is to see the boys bounce back and we will go again next Saturday.

“The game was realistically over after 10 minutes. We have started games really positively of late, put teams on the back foot and looked sharp, fit and created a lot of chances.

“But as a team and as a unit today we were too open and didn’t show that bit extra we have shown in recent games.

“The lads don’t go out there and deliberately not turn up. It was one of those days. Even after the first 10 minutes we huffed and puffed but didn’t have that extra edge to us. We looked a yard off the pace.”

New signing Reggie Lambe made his full debut in midfield because of injuries to Fergus Bell and Chris Clements. Simon Heslop also returned to midfield against his former club.

But within three minutes the Stags were behind. Pett set Whelpdale clear and although keeper Evtimov blocking the shot, Whelpdale followed up to crash the opener past Ryan Tafazolli on the line.

Two minutes later former Mansfield player Chris Beardsley crossed for Lee to beat Liam Marsden and fire in a second.

The Stags then creatred the better chances as the first half wore on and Rakish Bingham hit the woodwork and also went close on other occasions, while strike partner Matt Rhead also tested the home keeper.

The Stags switched to a 4-3-3 formation in the second half as Ollie Palmer and Jamie McGuire came on, but they rarely threatened to get back into the game and Whelpdale on the breakaway punished the Stags for committing too many men forward in the later stages.