Alex Morris struck a note of caution about Crewe's ambitions after today's gut-wrenching late defeat at the hands of Mansfield.

Ollie Hawkins headed a stoppage-time winner (90+3) for the Stags six minutes after sub Will Swan cancelled out Courtney Baker-Richardson's strike for Crewe.

Baker-Richardson's fine finish from a tight angle after some excellent build-up play from Bas Sambou and Dan Agyei appeared to have offered the Alex a surprise win over Nigel Clough's highly-fancied side.

But the late double blast dampened the mood in the Mornflake Stadium and leaves the Railwaymen down in 11th place in the early League Two table.

Crewe's four wins to date have come against Sutton, Harrogate, Crawley and Rochdale, sides below them, while stoppage-time goals have thwarted their hopes against higher-placed Northampton and now Mansfield.

Even a point would have arguably been undeserved against the Stags, who dominated the game throughout, but failed to create clear chances.

Arthur Okonkwo dealt with those that came, pushing around Hawkins' set-piece header in the first half and then tipping over Mansfield skipper Ollie Clarke's half-volley in the second half.

Aside from a free kick delivered in disappointing fashion from Tariq Uwakwe in the first half, Crewe hadn't offered a threat until Agyei rapped the post.

Soon after the attacker set up Baker-Richardson, who again showed his clinical touch in front of the home faithful. The frontman has scored in five of Crewe's six home outings and his 70th-minute effort was another classy finish.

But the visitors were far from finished and although there was a suspicion of handball about the manner in which Notts Forest loanee Swan latched onto fellow sub Jason Law's pass you couldn't argue with his finish, which was rifled into the bottom corner (87).

Hawkins then delivered the coup de grace from a cross from another of Clough's game-changing replacements, Kieran Wallace, when he headed past Okonkwo.

The Mansfield box was besieged as stoppage time ran through eight minutes and Rod McDonald agonisingly had an effort cleared off the line with defender Elliott Hewitt bicycle-kicking the ball away from danger in unorthodox fashion.

Morris said: "Two errors cost us the game and they have got to stop otherwise we are not going to be anywhere near as high up the table as we want to be.

"We're better than the teams below us, but not as good as those above us. We've been competitive in the games, but we've not been able to get a win against anyone above us.

"Mansfield have been in the play-offs and I think they are going to go up this season. They're a better team than us at the moment."

Mansfield boss Clough admitted: "Our subs won us the game today. We didn't do enough with our possession and our delivery into the box wasn't good enough. So you are always frightful of conceding, even though it was pretty much one-way traffic."