Mansfield made it 10 games unbeaten but manager Nigel Clough felt they should have put Colchester away long before a thrilling finish.

Already ahead thanks to Rhys Oates’ marvellous solo goal on 19 minutes, the Stags seemed home and dry when Jordan Bowery netted a penalty two minutes into added time at the end.

But Alan Judge’s brilliant free-kick in the seventh additional minute cut the margin to 2-1 and two nervous minutes followed with Colchester pressing before the final whistle blew.

“It shouldn’t have been as close in the end as it was,” said Clough after his side made it nine wins and a draw in the 10-game run.

“First half I thought we were outstanding and the only thing that was missing was another goal or two. We could easily have had two or three in the first half – the quality of our play deserved that.

“I thought the front three were outstanding and ran them ragged.

“It was never comfortable at 1-0 tonight because of the quality of their players. But we thoroughly deserved the three points in the end.

“Seeing a game out like that is just as important as the way we played in the first half.

“I thought the back four and (goalkeeper) Nathan Bishop deserved a clean sheet. It was a fantastic free-kick in off the far post but we shouldn’t have given the free-kick away.”

Oates opened the scoring when he ran from his own half and beat three defenders before blazing home from 25 yards.

Sam Hornby denied Lucan Akins and Jamie Murphy while John-Joe O’Toole smashed over from a close-range free-kick after a back-pass was punished.

But when Ollie Clarke won a late penalty, fellow substitute Bowery sent Hornby the wrong way from the spot.

However, there was still time for Judge to find the far top corner off the post from a free-kick from a tight angle as gutsy United went down battling.

It was a first defeat for Us interim manager Wayne Brown and he said: “I was disappointed with the first half as I thought we didn’t really lay a glove on them and were second all over the pitch.

“They didn’t have a game on Saturday so were fresher than us and that’s how it looked.

“They had other opportunities and should have been more comfortable – and how the referee gave that as a back-pass from a yard off the line was comical.

“Questions were asked of them as a group at half-time and credit to us, head and shoulders we were the better team second half.

“They were blocking like their life depended on it in stoppage time as we’d managed to get one back and there was a bit of panic.

“If we are going to go down we go down fighting – and I thought we did that tonight. I didn’t want the game to end.”