Mansfield Town’s demolition job on Oldham Athletic ‘the best we’ve played,’ says on loan West Ham United forward Dapo Afolayan

The 22-year-old scored within minutes of replacing Alex MacDonald in Saturday’s rout and was later tripped to earn a penalty which Jimmy Knowles tucked away.

Afolayan impressed during his half-an-hour cameo against a club he represented during the second half of last season, on loan from his parent club West Ham United.

And the on loan forward is looking to continue his recent form.

“It was a good game for me to come on in,” he said. “There was space for me to attack the other team’s defence and I just wanted to make an impression.

“I played well on Tuesday night [against Crewe in the EFL Trophy] and I wanted to carry that on. I feel like I need to get game-time and to keep pushing.

“I’m hitting really good form in training as well, so it’s good to get a goal and an assist.”

A Nicky Maynard hat-trick set Stags on their way against Oldham who were reduced to nine men towards the end of the first half, but Afolayan believes the sendings off had little impact on the overall outcome.

“It was a great performance and the best we’ve played since I’ve been here,” he said.

“Even before they went down to nine men we dominated the game. We were 2-0 up and the team were creating chances. 11-v-11 we were still the better team.

“People might look at how many men they had and make false things up but we were the better team no matter what.”

Stags’ victory sealed back-to-back wins in League Two for the first time this season to move within five points of the play-off spots.

“It gives us massive confidence,” he said. “We know out start to the season hasn’t been the best. We’ve got way too much quality to be where we are in the league.

“I know we’re going to keep climbing the league. We’ve got some good games coming up.

“Teams are going to look at our form and going to start to fear us and so they should because we’ve got too much quality in this squad to not be towards the top of the league.”