08/10/2007 - Mansfield Town 1 MK Dons 2
THEY say teams at the bottom of the league never have any luck - and there can be no better example of that than at Field Mill last night.
After being roundly criticised for their performance in the last 30 minutes of their disappointing defeat to Dagenham on Saturday, the Stags players could not have given a more rousing display in response.
Mansfield battled for every ball and gave it everything against a top-of-the-table Dons side who were expected to wipe the floor with them, having won their last four games on the bounce.
Not only that, the Stags also played much the better stuff, which would have made a neutral observer think they were the team gunning for promotion.
But football has a cruel habit of kicking strugglers when they are down - and that was precisely the case here.
Followers of other League Two teams will have switched on their Ceefax and thought it was a routine MK Dons win against a poor home side. In truth, it was, as one visiting reporter put it, daylight robbery.
Using an unusual 4-3-3 formation only conceived and worked on in training on Monday, Mansfield seemed to unsettle Paul Ince's physical side from the outset.
They went in front on the half hour through Michael Boulding and it seemed only a matter of time before more goals and a deserved win followed.
However, they were made to pay for not securing a second while on top as MK nicked it with two second-half goals.
At the end Mansfield's players were shattered and shell shocked - and no wonder.
Not only were they desperately disappointed to fall to their fifth straight League Two defeat, they were also, quite rightly, livid with the referee.
The Stags' anger with Lincolnshire official Darren Drysdale started early in the game and built steadily throughout the match.
In the first half he let go a clutch of late challenges by Dons players, but then booked Jake Buxton just before half-time for a far less serious tackle. He also turned down a blatant penalty for a foul on Boulding by Danny Swailes because the home player tried to be honest and stay on his feet.
Whether Boulding went down or not was irrelevant; it was still a spot kick. And it hardly encourages good sportsmanship if a player has to sprawl on the ground to get a decision.
Despite that, the Stags made the breakthrough on the half hour when Stephen Dawson's chip into the box was met by the leaping Boulding who guided a header in off the left-hand post from ten yards.
Soon after, Dawson crucially failed to make it 2-0 when he clipped the left-hand post after a surging run from Johnny Mullins.
In the second half, MK Dons predictably had a real go at Mansfield, although the hosts looked to be holding firm.
But disaster struck on the hour when Carl Muggleton was forced off with a broken nose after making a good save from Leon Knight. He was the third Stags player in as many games to leave the field with injury.
Refereeing controversy was never far away, though, and as Lloyd Dyer chased a 72nd-minute through-pass, Mansfield felt he bundled the ball out of replacement keeper Jason White's hands.
They also contested whether the winger had got it over the line, with Alex John-Baptiste in close attendance.
The officials thought he had, awarding an equalising goal just when the Stags appeared to be heading for a first clean sheet of the campaign.
It was a bitter pill for Mansfield supporters to swallow, and when Jude Stirling broke away from Dyer's perfect pass to fire the Dons into an improbable lead with eight minutes left their sense of injustice only heightened.
That frustration was capped off when Swailes crunched into substitute Nathan Arnold in the closing stages and then pushed over a Mansfield player, only to escape with a yellow card.
Even so, the fans made it clear at full-time, the commitment of the players had not gone unnoticed; they gave a standing ovation to their side.
They also made it equally clear what they thought of Drysdale.
No matter how badly the Stags have played this season - and they have been woeful at times - they have certainly not had the run of the green.
But they can draw hope from the fact things are not always going to be that way.
More performances of this ilk and that elusive three points will not be long in coming.