IT'S been a long time coming, but Mansfield Town finally chalked up a precious BSP league win and their first double of the campaign at home to crisis club Salisbury City on Saturday afternoon.
It was actually Stags' first league win since 27th September at Salisbury and ended a barren run of five straight league defeats which have been followed by two cup exits.
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The cash-strapped visitors arrived with only one recognised striker available with Matt Tubbs suspended and others moving on in the week.
But Stags still stuttered their way along nervously until a moment's magic from Emile Sinclair saw give them an 18th minute lead.
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Sinclair's skill also earned a 35th minute penalty which saw Djoumin Sangere red-carded for his last ditch foul and Adnan Ahmed made it 2-0 from the spot.
After that Stags could have had a hatful but found City keeper James Bittner in top form, making half a dozen crucial saves before he was finally beaten again by Mark Stallard two minutes from time.
Former Stags Clarke almost gave the visitors a shock lead from a second minute corner. It sailed across goal to the far post where Sangare nodded it back in and Clarke popped up to head wide of the near post from close range.
Gamble comfortably saved from a low 25 yard Davies shot as City continued to press.
City cleared a Stags corner and then came close again as Griffin rose at the far post to head a Herring free kick across the face of goal.
Two minutes later Mansfield created their first real danger as Lee went up for a Jeannin free kick with keeper Bittner and got a head on it which saw the ball bounce towards goal. But the keeper had time to readjust and claw it away before it could go over the line.
A good ball down the left by Jeannin gave Arnold a run. He cut inside to find Ahmed but he was challenged as he tried to get a shot away and ended up poking tamely wide.
Mansfield were struggling to make any real impact but found themselves ahead on 18 minutes after a moment of charitable defending and some superb finishing by Sinclair.
Clearing their lines from a free kick, Somner lumped a huge clearance forward which Bartlett failed to deal with and allowed Sinclair possession. The Forest loanee raced forward and, with Arnold unmarked in front of goal to his left, chose to go it alone and curled a lethal finish past Bittner.
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On 23 minutes O'Hare headed an Arnold free kick back across goal and Moses forced Bittner to save his low finish from 12 yards.
On 25 minutes Ahmed launched into a mistimed tackle on Herring and, in the current climate of sending offs for diving into tackles, was relieved to only see a yellow card.
Sinclair was well over from 25 yards for City on 28 minutes.
Griffin should have done better when he got goalside of Jeannin on the half-hour from Clarke's flick and raced into the box only to slice horribly wide.
Salisbury continued to threaten and Clarke had the time and space to fire one just over on 33 minutes.
But the game swung dramatically in Mansfield's direction on 34 minutes. Sinclair stuck a leg between two defenders to reach the ball and wriggled between them to go clear on goal. As he was about to finish Sangare clipped his legs to fell him.
The red card and penalty kick award were formalities and with Sangare finally off the field Ahmed strode up to bury a low 35th minute spot kick for his first goal for the club.
Arnold turned Clohessy well on the left of the box before seeing his attempted lob pas over the bar.
Griffin's 30 yard free kick took a deflection for City's second corner.
But on 44 minutes Bittner produced two superb saves to deny Stags a third.
Mansfield broke well down the centre as Ahmed released Sinclair. He pushed the ball past the defenders and then showed his pace to get there and flash in a shot which the keeper palmed aside.
Arnold recovered the loose ball and cued up the incoming Ahmed whose first time shot was on target only to see Bittner again beat it aside.
But there was a let-off for the home side in stoppage time when Sinclair whipped a free kick in from the left which hit Gamble in the chest and thankfully was cleared.
Sinclair should have made it 3-0 on the restart but somehow failed to get his header on target from four yards from Arnold's left wing cross.
Then Ahmed had a low shot deflect wide for a corner while, in a momentary scramble, Bittner dropped a cross, tussled and lost out with Lee who crossed hard and almost straight into the face of O'Hare who couldn't direct the ball on target.
But there was danger for Stags again when a ball that looked set to bounce into touch was reached by Sinclair and hooked right back across the face of goal with no one able to capitalise.
Sinclair held the ball up and laid a pass for D'Laryea for a first time shot but this flew over the top of the South Stand and into the car park!
Stallard replaced Lee for the final 26 minutes for the home side. And on 71 minutes he brought another great save out of Bittner with a header from an Arnold cross.
Arnold was inches over with a dipping shot soon after and then saw Bittner easily save a low 20 yard effort as Stags looked for that killer third goal.
Stallard brought another good stop out of the excellent Bittner 12 minutes from time when he controlled Silk's cross on his chest before blasting a half volley on target which Bittner parried.
Hurren was booked for his foul on Griffin.
But Stags finally made the points safe two minutes from time.
Bittner managed to parry a long range effort from Arnold, the ball bounced to Hurren who sent a tame follow-up at goal which Bittner was also able to parry, but he could do nothing as Stallard ran in to smash home the loose ball and make it third time lucky to beat the excellent City keeper.
In stoppage time Moses sent Arnold down the right and his low hard cross simply shot through the legs of the incoming O'Connor.
Then a neat move ended with Arnold crashing home a low shot but an offside flag was raised.
STAGS: Gamble; Silk, Moses, O'Hare, Jeannin; Ahmed (Hurren 72), Somner, D'Laryea; Sinclair (O'Connor 74), Lee (Stallard 64), Arnold. Subs: Herriott, Chanot.
SALISBURY: Bittner; Bartlett (Ruddick 79), Bass, Sangare, Clohessy; Davies (Cook ht), Herring, Clarke (Maher 69), Dutton, Sinclair; Griffin. Subs: Turk, Robinson.
REFEREE: W. Barratt.
ATTENDANCE: 1,921.
