Stags' boss Steve Evans believes his side 'did enough' to earn something at the Weston Homes Community Stadium, despite slipping to a 2-0 defeat to Colchester United this afternoon.
Two goals in the space of five first half minutes from the U's decided the encounter, but Stags created enough openings to make a breakthrough of their own.
And speaking post-match, the manager said despite his players giving everything in Essex, it wasn't their day.
"I think we got ourselves in enough good areas today to give them a problem," the Stags' chief said.
"You come to Colchester and you never have that dominance that we had in the second half, but there's got to be that end product.
"You look around League Two today and there's a mixture of results because it's a tough competition.
"This is a tough place to come but we did enough today to certainly take something back to Mansfield but it wasn't to be our day.
"It was very similar to Cheltenham; we should be two up. The players have turned up and given everything, but it just wasn't our day."
The manager felt his side should have had a penalty early in the second half after winger Alex MacDonald was brought down following a driving run into the box.
"This is a tough place to come but we did enough today to certainly take something back to Mansfield but it wasn't to be our day."
"I think the boy's left his trailing leg. I don't think there was lots of intention to go and chop Alex down.
"Alex wrong-foots the defender and he's left a trailing leg, which is a penalty. We didn't get it and we need to move on from it.
"We've had enough good chances to score. The fourth official said to me with two or three minutes of added time left: 'you must feel that you've run over a black cat on the way in' and that's how it feels because we've had a lot of domination but domination has never won a point."
Speaking about the goals conceded, the boss was frustrated to see U's midfielder Sean Murray's opener take a deflection en route to the back of the net
"It was going straight into Conrad's (Logan) arms and it's hit Alex's trailing leg. Alex MacDonald has gone to block the shot and it's hit the inside of his trailing leg and it crawls into the far corner.
"We shouldn't give [away] the free-kick. Omari (Sterling-James) gives away the free-kick – it's a striker's challenge on the edge of the box – and it gives them an opportunity to do that.
"The second one, we don't close the cross down quick enough and then the boy peels off Mirf (David Mirfin) and scores a simple header."
Supporters can login later tonight to iFollow Stags to view the manager's full post-match interview.
