A GOAL on his debut for Rakish Bingham helped Mansfield Town to a 2-1 victory at Exeter City.
The young striker caused all sorts of problems on his first Stags appearance and opened the scoring with quarter of an hour gone.
Fergus Bell extended the visitors' lead just before the break before Matt Grimes reduced the deficit in the second half.
The Grecians stepped up a gear as they searched for an equaliser, but Mansfield ended a run of three straight defeats for their first away win of the season.
Stags boss Paul Cox handed deadline day signing Bingham his debut as one of four changes to his starting line-up at St James Park, following a midweek Johnstone's Paint Trophy exit to Notts County.
The 20-year-old partnered Matt Rhead up front in place of Alex Fisher, while Lee Beevers, Jamie McGuire and Bell also came into the first XI, with Simon Heslop, Rob Taylor and Chris Clements dropping to the bench.
A fairly even start saw neither keeper tested, with the only problem for Mansfield stopper Dimitar Evtimov coming from some poor back-passes.
The Nottingham Forest loanee though, dealt with just about everything which came his way and Exeter were unable to capitalise.
Even when Evtimov missed a ball swung in from the left, Matt Oakley's return from the opposite flank was fired well wide and the scoreline remained goal-less.
The Grecians had their fair share of possession in the opening stages but too often were careless with the ball and failed to cause their opponents too many problems.
The nearest they came was from a well-worked free-kick after 13 minutes. Oakley rolled the ball to Craig Woodman, who fired goalwards but had to settle for a corner as Martin Riley deflected it wide.
And with that, the visitors took advantage and opened the scoring shortly afterwards.
An effort from Bell was parried by Grecians goalie Christy Pym, with Bingham on hand to tap home for his first senior goal.
He could have grabbed a second on the half hour.
Adam Murray picked out the front man with a delightful clipped ball forward as Stags launched a counter-attack. But with no support, he was forced to go it alone against three defenders and couldn't battle his way through.
Bingham though, should have done better five minutes later when through one-on-one. His shot from 12 yards was easily dealt with by Pym.
Comfortably in control, Mansfield just needed to make it count.
And they did so five minutes before the break.
Murray's corner wasn't properly dealt with and Bell picked up the loose ball before blasting it into the net from 20 yards.
It had proved a stroll in the first half as the Grecians lacked the necessary cutting edge up front to find a way into the game.
And little changed early on after the break.
Woodman's cross from the left found Christian Ribeiro in the box, but despite having a free header, the Exeter man opted to try to find a team-mate and instead headed away from goal.
At the opposite end of the pitch, Bingham continued to look lively for the visitors.
A superb run saw him carve his way through the Exeter defence and feed Liam Marsden. But the end product couldn't match the build-up as Marsden hit the ball straight at Pym from the goal-line.
Stags undoubtedly had the upper hand, but their opponents grasped a lifeline just past the hour mark.
A free-kick from far out on the right was brilliantly arrowed into the top corner by substitute Grimes from a seemingly impossible angle, leaving Evtimov grasping at thin air.
The Grecians tried to apply the pressure in the closing minutes as they looked for an equaliser, but despite a few nervy moments, Stags hung on for the three points.
EXETER: Pym, Ribeiro (Keohane 64), Bennett, Baldwin (Grimes 46), Moore-Taylor (Nichols 64), Woodman, Wheeler, Sercombe, Oakley, Nicholls, Cummins. Subs not used: Hamon, Butterfield, Davies, Tillson.
MANSFIELD: Evtimov, Sutton (Taylor 56), Riley, Tafazolli, Marsden, Murray, McGuire, Bell (Heslop 65), Beevers, Rhead, Bingham (Palmer 78). Subs not used: Studer, Fisher, Thomas, Clements.
ATTENDANCE: 2,771 (137 away).
