New Scunthorpe manager Keith Hill now fully understands the size of the task ahead of him to get his side off the bottom of the league after watching his new charges lose 3-1 after leading at Mansfield

Myles Hippolyte gave the Iron a 15th-minute lead against the run of play from the spot after he had been brought down by keeper Nathan Bishop when trying to round him.

But home skipper Ollie Clarke was given room to net low from 20 yards on 28 minutes before Jordan Bowery made it 2-1 in first-half stoppage time, following up after loanee keeper Keiran O’Hara had blocked a Harry Charsley shot.

Stags made it safe on the hour when Alex Perry was caught on the ball and pickpocketed by Clarke, who ran on to drill home.

Hill said: “I am absolutely gutted – we’re never going to win football matches with the mistakes we’ve made.

“But it’s indicative of the mentality of a losing side.

“There was too much fear, even though we went 1-0 up and could have gone 2-0 up.

“They’re all good lads but they have to become better competitors and understand how to win.

“I have seen first hand now what the bigger problems are.

“I want them to play with no fear and express themselves, but there is scar tissue in the squad in the performances because they are losing games.

“They have to release themselves from the mental shackles and just perform. There is no magic cure.

“They are trying their best but we have to show more football intelligence.

“We have games coming thick and fast and we have to pick the players up and go again.”

After 14 games with no wins, this was a fifth win in a row for Mansfield and first-team coach Andy Garner said: “We had to make sure we were right at 3pm.

“Playing against bottom of the league but we know Keith Hill very well from over the years and we knew he’d make it hard for us today.

“You could take things too casually against bottom of the league, but we’ve worked hard all week and put it into practice today.

“We started well but they scored from the penalty. Then we showed good character to come back and I think we thoroughly deserved the win.

“We were outstanding in midfield. Reverting back to 4-5-1, we have a lot of quality in there and we trust them all. It enables us to get it down and play.

“Ollie Clarke was fantastic today as he has been for the last couple of games.

“We don’t want to go back to how it was a month ago – that was probably one of the worst times I’ve had in football to be quite honest.

“We’ve tried to put it right and once you get that first win you get a bit of confidence and belief back. Now we’ve taken it to the fifth win and we look confident now.

“We have two really hard games coming up so we will see where we are after next Saturday.”