Luton Town 2 Mansfield 3

Last updated : 17 September 2002 By Footymad Previewer

Mansfield Town ended a run of five straight defeats with a 3-2 victory at early season relegation rivals Luton Town.

But the Stags made their small travelling army of supporters sweat for victory by conceding two late goals against the Luton team, who were unbeaten in their previous five matches.

Goals by Liam Lawrence, the evergreen Scott Sellars and Iyseden Christie had seen Mansfield race into a 3-0 lead after 50 minutes. That advantage was deserved against the Luton team that produced their worst performance since Joe Kinnear took over as manager in February 2001.

Luton could still have snatched the point, however, with Steve Howard and Steve Robinson both hitting the crossbar before Howard and Kevin Nicholls found the net in the final five minutes.

Mansfield went in front after nine minutes when Lawrence took advantage of a Russell Perrett mistake to shoot into Carl Emberson's bottom corner from inside the six-yard box.

Sellars doubled the visitors' lead on 23 minutes when he ran unchallenged into the Hatters penalty box before shooting low past Emberson.

Kinnear had used all three of his substitutes by the start of the second half and changed his formation twice, but it was the Stags who scored again after 50 minutes.

Christie looked suspiciously offside when he collected Sellars' intelligent pass but no flag was raised and the striker curled an exquisite shot into Emberson's bottom corner with the outside of his left foot.

Luton finally found some passion in the game's closing stages and Howard headed in Sol Davis' free-kick after 85 minutes.

Nicholls then ensured a grandstand finish when he beat Kevin Pilkington with a low 25-yard shot, but it was too little too late for Luton and Mansfield's fans returned up the M1 celebrating maximum points