Mansfield Town beat Leyton Orient 2-0 to extend their winning run to eight games, setting a new club record.
Goals from former Orient man, Jordan Bowery, and Ollie Clarke at a windy One Call Stadium handed the away side their fifth defeat in seven games.
It was a relatively quiet first half for both teams until Bowery opened the contentiously scoring after 43 minutes, with many believing he handled the ball in the build up.
Rhys Oates carried the ball all the way along the edge of the box before chipping it into Bowery who controlled the ball before poking it past Lawrence Vigouroux in the Orient goal.
According to Leyton Orient boss Kenny Jackett it should not have counted after the ball appeared to come off the scorer’s arm.
Speaking to Chad.co.uk Jackett said: “I thought the first goal was handball.
“None of us can really understand the decision. The linesman was that side as well.”
However, Stags boss, Nigel Clough was pleased with the goal. “We would have been pleased to get in at half-time 0-0, so the goal was a bonus,” Nigel Clough said to BBC Radio Nottingham.
Ollie Clarke doubled Mansfield’s lead on 72 minutes after Orient attempted to clear a Stephen Quinn corner but the ball went up rather than out and fell to Clarke just inside the box, he struck it first time and the ball went low and hard into the bottom right corner.
Clough said: “I thought we played better in the second half with the wind against us – we got it down and we played much better when we could, and I thought the second goal was absolutely brilliant.”
Two minutes later Leyton Orient sub Aaron Drinnan hit the outside of the post after he was played in behind the Mansfield defence.
With 12 minutes left Drinnan had another glorious chance to get a goal back following a corner that caused chaos in the home penalty area, Dan Happe had a header cleared off the line and the ball then fell to Drinnan less than a yard out but his header hit the bar in what turned out to be the last chance of the game.
Mansfield now lie in sixth place and are just three points off Newport in the final automatic promotion place with two games in hand on them too.
Mansfield travel to Harrogate Town tomorrow evening hoping to make it a masively impressive nine wins in a row.
