STEVE Evans blasted his Mansfield Town troops for producing one of the worst performances of his managerial career en route to falling to a 3-1 defeat at home to Swindon Town at the weekend.

The Stags were the architects of their own downfall as a needless foul from Alex MacDonald, followed by slack marking at the subsequent free-kick, allowed Swindon to get their noses in front as early as the fourth minute when Amine Linganzi prodded them ahead.

Although they rallied, Mansfield never really threatened an equaliser and were caught again when John Goddard doubled the visitors’ lead.

Evans felt the penalty converted by Luke Norris three minutes into the second half was harsh, although the Stags boss conceded that overall, his troops got exactly what they deserved from the game.

“Football’s a cruel game isn’t it? In the space of two weeks we go from being as good as we were against the league leaders, to equally as poor a performance as I can remember any of my teams serving up, ever,” said Evans.

“There was a lack of fight, lack of spirit, lack of desire and when you have that, then you invariably lose a game.

“We were 2-0 down, we don’t deserve anything else, but to go 3-0 down is particularly cruel.

“With the benefit of looking at it back, it’s not a penalty kick.

“Swindon played particularly well, scored two goals from mistakes by us and the third goal kills the game.

“It’s a goal on four minutes from a simple, basic error by Alex to commit a foul and when you leave (Matt) Taylor to put balls in the box, it’s always going to be a problem for you.

“When the second goes in seconds before half-time – again, another error – another runner that’s not marked and then you try and have a rally call at half-time.”

Danny Rose was able to grab a late consolation for Mansfield but that did not stop the boos ringing out around the One Call Stadium at the final whistle, with Evans admitting the poor performance was difficult to swallow.

“No one will be more critical of that performance, individually, than myself and Paul (Raynor, assistant manager),” said Evans.

“Some people are claiming I wasn’t (hurting). They don’t know me. They’ll sleep tonight, I won’t.”