Mansfield Town boss Nigel Clough bitterly disappointed by manner of first defeat after Swindon Town snatch late winner​​​​​​​

Half-time substitute Lucas Akins looked to have earned Stags a deserved point with a 49th minute equaliser to wipe out Jake Young's 38th minute volley.

But Young struck again in the third added minute at the end and Clough said: “It was just an incredibly disappointing way to have worked unbelievably hard for 17 games, 18 with the one last season, and then to give it away in that manner today.

“We had won five on the spin in the league so you take your point, go home, say we weren't quite at it, and let's go again against Tranmere on Tuesday. But you don't lose the game.

“It was probably about the right result.

“I didn't think we were particularly at it, especially in the first half.

“We got the goal back and you sensed it was very open. We missed chance after chance again today, though they had a lot of situations as well.

“So you should just take your point. But we couldn't see out that last three or four minutes.”

He added: “When we stepped it up second half, Aaron Lewis could have had a hat-trick today with his situations. And Lucas has hit the bar when he should score, after scoring us a brilliant goal.

“Having said all that, when you haven't been brilliant you take your point and make sure you don't concede.

“We didn’t quite have that mentality today.”

Clough sent on Akins and Stephen Quinn for the second half.

“I took Jordan Bowery and George Maris off at half-time as I didn't think they'd done enough – there were a few didn't do enough today.

“We didn't look quite as energetic as we usually do. Play from the back was a bit slow and I don't think the front three did pretty much anything.

“I could have taken any one of them off. So Jordan was a bit unlucky in that way.

“The only reason Lucas didn't start was the 100 minutes he played the other night at Burton when James Gale had to come off. But he scored us the goal that should have got us a point.

“We needed him on there as that focal point and we needed other people playing off him.”

Clough was disappointed with Rhys Oates' marking for the Swindon opener but also with the referee for failing to give a free kick in the build up.

“Rhys Oates was marking their lad for their first goal and he let him get away,” said Clough.

“It was little things like that today. If you are back there in a defensive position you have to do better.

“But the referee apologised as there was a foul in the build-up to it.

“The fourth official told him it was a foul. The referee then came over at the start of the second half and said he should have listened to his fourth official.

“We get told in these pre-season meetings that anything in and around the halfway line, the fourth official is perfectly entitled to have an input and the referee will take note of that.

“He has apologised, said he was sorry and he made a mistake, but unfortunately that error has contributed to the result.”

Both sides had big shouts for a penalty within a minute of each other in the second half, Swindon wanting a handball and Davis Keillor-Dunn looking like he had been fouled.

“I thought they were both penalties, certainly Aden Flint's handball was,” said Clough.

“Then Davis took the ball away from the lad and he was tripped pretty clearly. I think one decision affected the other.”

Clough continued: “We threw Aden Flint up for 20 minutes, maybe we should have put him back in defence for the last few minutes.

“Now we have to go again on Tuesday. If the players can't pick themselves up for the Tranmere game after 17 games unbeaten there is something wrong with the players we have.

“I hope losing today is a very unpleasant feeling for them as it certainly is for me right now to lose in that manner at that time of the game when we should be seeing the game out.

“We lost a point today that we had with 180 seconds to go, so all we can do now is try to get all three on Tuesday.”