Louie Barry forced Mansfield goalkeeper Liam Roberts into a smart diving save and towering centre-back Ethan Pye headed against the crossbar as Stockport missed chances to take a lead into half-time.

Mansfield were out of the play-off race and safe from relegation heading into the match, but showed intent throughout and took the lead after 63 minutes through substitute Tyler Roberts’ low finish.

Stockport rallied late on as Jack Diamond fired a long-range effort over the bar, but they could not find a breakthrough on a night where play-off rivals Luton inched closer with a 2-0 win at Rotherham.

Challinor’s men sit fifth in League One, three points above Luton with the same goal difference and a game in hand and the Stockport boss believes his side will finish in the top six despite underperforming against Mansfield.

He said: “On the whole, I don’t think we deserved to lose the game, but if you judge it on our quality in the final third, then maybe you can say we did.

“That’s because we got in so many good positions and our decision-making and quality in the final third were miles off it.

“I am really disappointed with the goal and people have questions to ask about how we went about defending that.

“That ultimately cost us the game. Even if we’re frustrated with what happens in the final third and we are not making good decisions, then come out of the game with a clean sheet and take 0-0 and move on.

“I think we then lost our way at the back after conceding a poor goal, which made us more frantic. Then our decision-making became even worse.”

Challinor predicted his side need “one win” to secure a play-off place and is full of belief they will get over the line with three games left to play.

“I’m confident, and no-one can have any complaints around us knowing what we need to do, regardless of what happens elsewhere.”

Mansfield boss Nigel Clough was delighted with the performance and called on his players to continue their form across the final three games.

He said: “They have some exceptionally good players who will be in the play-offs and will be in the Championship next season.

“I said to the players that you learn a lot when you’ve got nothing to play for, when you know you’ve just got safe and everybody’s relieved. We had a ding dong (2-2 draw) with Luton on Saturday, and it is absolutely magnificent to come here and get the result we did.

“We have three games to go and are on 58 points, trying to get towards that 60-point mark. It won’t get any easier against Huddersfield on Sunday, but we will try to do the same again.

“To record another clean sheet and get the three points was absolutely brilliant, but we don’t want to relax – we want to keep doing it.”