First-team coach Andy Garner had high praise for injury-ravaged Mansfield as they dug deep under a late Stevenage bombardment to cling onto a 1-0 win against their visiting promotion rivals.

Stags had eight players missing and lost James Gale after 21 minutes with a head injury, but they stood firm and Garner said: “We’ve won 1-0 and I would have taken that all day at 3pm.

“We are so proud of the players with the week they’ve had and the injuries we’ve got.

“That win was staggering. The only disappointing thing is we haven’t moved anywhere. We must be the only team that get six points and don’t move anywhere.

“It was hard watching near the end. We all want the three points and were just hoping and praying when the ball went into the box we got it cleared.

“It didn’t help when Christy Pym got smashed into and they played on. I thought the officials were extremely poor today.

“We have had to manage a lot of balls into our box today but the desire, courage and effort to keep that ball out of the net was absolutely fantastic.

“I can’t speak highly enough of them and I hope the crowd appreciate it too. The lads were on their knees.”

A game of few chances was decided on 11 minutes when Lucas Akins saw a shot blocked so squared the rebound to Davis Keillor-Dunn, whose low blast clipped Gale on its way and sent the keeper the wrong way, squirming over the line.

Home keeper Christy Pym saved well from Jamie Reid before the break and Jordan Roberts and Carl Piergianni both headed straight at Pym.

The last 15 minutes were one-way traffic but Stags held on and Stevenage boss Steve Evans said: “There was nothing between the sides.

“It was two good sides who played very poorly on the day and it could have gone either way.

“It was always going to be a magic goal that won it or the luckiest goal of the season – and they had the fortune of the luckiest goal. It trickled over the line it was that bad a deflection.

“So we’ll take the defeat and move on to Tuesday.

“I don’t think there was a clear-cut chance in the game for either side which befits the lack of quality in a game in which there was a lot at stake.

“The last 15 minutes we’ve thrown the sink and had a gamble but it didn’t happen for us today.

“We are lacking numbers. But one thing we have is fantastic characters in the dressing room. We would not be where we are with just three games to go if we didn’t.”