NIGEL Clough described Mansfield’s last gasp win at struggling Oldham as “a little bit fortunate”.

Davis Keillor-Dunn had headed Latics into a deserved half-time lead. But they let another chance to climb out of the bottom two pass them by when the Stags started to dominate in the second half, equalising courtesy of a deflection before getting lucky again in the last minute of stoppage time.

After Rhys Oates was denied a second by the woodwork, substitute George Lapslie got lucky with the rebound and a bundled finish.

And after the win pushed Mansfield up to eighth - a point off the play-offs and four points from the automatic places with three games in hand, Clough noted that was the difference between a team challenging at the top end, and a team struggling at the bottom.

“Oldham have some good players, but when you are down there things go against you as we've seen today,” said Clough after the game.

“The teams fighting at the top get the breaks in the last minute.

“We have been down there over the years and every little thing seems to go against you and that was the case.

“I have been saying this would probably be our most difficult game of the season so far for different reasons.

“I feel a little bit fortunate. But we deserved the luck we got from earlier on in the season.

“The season is balancing itself out from earlier on when things went against us.”