Walker at the double to clinch comeback

And we certainly did that.”

Stevenage manager anager Dino Maamria said while he thought the margin of defeat was tough on his players, he vowed they will learn from the manner of defeat.

“I thought it was harsh. The 3-1 result doesn’t reflect our performance,” he said. “I thought we were better in the second half, but the goals we conceded were really poor.

“Their goal from a corner really changed the momentum of the game. Goals change games.

“It was a good contest overall, but I thought we completed well throughout the game.

“At 1-1 we hit the bar and they went up the other end and scored. They caught us on the counter.

“But we’ll re-group, stay positive and move forward.”

Newton’s closerange finish gave the hosts a deserved lead.

However, Sweeney equalised with his first goal for Mansfield, pouncing on a loose ball from a corner.

Walker then picked out the bottom corner with a sweet strike to put the Stags ahead, before his effort from CJ Hamilton’s pass was blocked by Paul Farman before he drove in the rebound. DAVID Flitcroft hailed the perseverance of his Mansfield side after they came from behind to beat Stevenage.

Despite going 1-0 down to Danny Newton’s goal two minutes into firsthalf stoppage time, the Stags hit back with three efforts in the second period to keep themselves in the promotion hunt.

A Ryan Sweeney goal and two from Tyler Walker confirmed the win for the visitors, who are fifth in the table, having lost only once all season.

“It’s the best start we’ve had by a country mile,” said Flitcroft. “Some of the quality was there for all to see, it was top class.

“I thought we worked the ball brilliantly, moved it wide and we tried to sort deconstruct them from every angle. And I thought we did.

“They’ve then hit the ball in our half, we’ve not dealt with it and we’ve come unstuck when they scored.

“It was a shock at half-time and we were stunned by the game, but once I’d dusted myself down I got the players to be more ruthless.

“We won it really comfortably in the end. It was important we came here and had a good display.