Stags' boss Steve Evans says his side 'didn't turn up' for today's 2-0 defeat to Crawley Town but insists they will 'take it on the chin' and focus their attentions on displaying a positive reaction against Yeovil Town next week.
A game of few chances was decided in the second half, as Crawley substitutes Joe McNerney and Ibrahim Meite struck to secure three points for the home side.
And the gaffer admitted that Crawley deserved to win the game, believing they were the better of the two sides on the day.
In a frank assessment, the manager said: "We've given the lads lots of credit and plaudits [recently] and we never showed up [today]. We didn't train properly yesterday. We tried to warn them about when you train like that, what you take into games.
"I don't think we were any good at any stage and yet it's just two individual, poor errors that see us concede the two goals but there's no excuses. They're the better team on the day and they deserve to win. We have to take it on the chin and go away and come back onto the training ground.
"We had a lot of dominance up to the final third and I think for 20 minutes in the game, we've controlled the game. We're not watching chances missed or goalkeepers making saves so you have to take a true reflection on it.
"If you're them, you're thinking 'well Mansfield are in good form, they've come here on the back of a run of games, they're going to have a bit of pressure early doors'. I thought their lads stood up to it well.
"We offer them our credit but we're really disappointed, we're down. We'll be down tonight and tomorrow. We've got a long week now before we can try and put that right."
Today's loss was the first time Stags have tasted defeat in eight league matches, picking up 13 points from a possible 21 before today, and the manager has issued a warning to his players about the need to avoid complacency.
"We offer them our credit but we're really disappointed, we're down. We'll be down tonight and tomorrow. We've got a long week now before we can try and put that right."
"We said before we came down, there's that little word that our chairman [John Radford] used at the start of the season, complacency.
"We were complacent today, all over the pitch and we were complacent in some of the other ones we've been in and got beaten. So the ones that we think are largely responsible for it will just go out the team, that's what it is.
"You come up against certain teams and you felt there was complacency. Training was really poor yesterday and I spoke to them yesterday after the training session and said 'if that's how you train then you're going to play like that' and it's notorious that when we have trained like that, that's how we've played the following day.
"We've got a good squad of players, we've got good guys in the dressing room but we need to learn, I said it pre-match, you have to respect every opponent and the minute you don't respect them, they beat you. We were off it on most parts of the pitch today, certainly from 20 minutes on."
Supporters will be able to login to iFollow Stags and watch the manager's post-match interview on Sunday.
