Mansfield produced an emphatic performance as they beat Rotherham United 6-2 at The Graham Solley Sports Development Centre in the Youth Alliance League on Saturday.
Stags’ midfielder Alfie King, who returned from injury last weekend against Doncaster Rovers, scored a brace in the fixture against the Millers.
Right-back Taylor Anderson, attack-minded midfielder Jakub Kruszynski and a trialist also found themselves on the scoresheet.
Stags raced out the blocks and came close to breaking the deadlock after only two minutes when attacker Ronnie Kokkinos fired at Nat Ford’s goal from the edge of the box, but his effort flew just wide of Rotherham's goal.
King and Anderson, who both recently returned from a long spell on the sidelines, linked up to open the scoring after 12 minutes.
Anderson fired a fierce ball across the area and King was there to tap the ball into the back of the net and give his side the advantage.
Following the first goal of the game, the hosts looked the stronger team as they created a number of opportunities and eventually they got their reward on 26 minutes as striker Adam Clark rolled the ball into the bottom corner and restored parity for Rotherham.
The nerves were calmed 10 minutes later as the Stags regained the advantage following an error from Millers’ ‘keeper Nat Ford. After the ball was swung into the box from the right-hand side, Ford spilled it into the back of his net.
And only three minutes later, following a foul in the area, Anderson confidently dispatched his spot kick into the bottom right-hand corner to extend Stags' lead.
A strong first-half display saw Mansfield enter the break with a 3-1 lead.
Five minutes into the second-half, the Millers took their chance to reduce the deficit as attacker Kanye Nesbit found the back of Theo Avery’s net.
Mansfield clawed back their two goal cushion just three minutes later.
Following a cross into the box, a trialist was able to convert his chance at the back post to put Mansfield 4-2 up.
On 76 minutes, the Stags made their first substitution of the game as the defensive-minded Lewis Warnaby replaced the trialist.
King found the back of Ford’s net for the second time with 11 minutes remaining.
After picking up the ball on the edge of the area, he placed the ball into the bottom left-hand corner - a goal which capped off a terrific performance from the midfielder, as he was replaced by central-midfielder Bailey Hamilton a few minutes later.
The Stags scored their sixth goal of the game at the death as Jakub Kruszynski hammered the ball into the top left-hand corner to complete Mansfield’s mission of picking up three points on the road.
ROTHERHAM : Ford, Seisay, Day, Mare (Ayres 49), Bond, Warne, Champion, Holvey, Nesbit, Clark, Hatton
UNUSED SUBS: Hamilton, Grove, Harris, Sterling
STAGS: Avery, Anderson, Whyle, Maher, Wauchope, Carter, Flanagan, Kruszynski, King (Hamilton 81), Kokkinos, Trialist (Warnaby 76)
UNUSED SUBS: Colton-Balogun, Taylor, Oldershaw
