LOMAS ON STAGS: Mansfield Town sitting pretty for promotion after goals blitz at Bradford City

Saturday’s big hurdle of Bradford City away was made to look like a walk in the park by Nigel Clough’s title-chasers as they battered the Bantams into early submission, racing into a 3-0 lead inside 18 minutes.

In the end Bradford could count themselves fortunate to have only lost 5-1 as Stags rained in 27 shots on the home goals, compared with Bradford’s six. There were also five different scorers, including a 19th of the season for Davis Keillor-Dunn.

Indeed the only blot on the copybook was allowing former Stags striker Andy Cook to come on as a sub and steal his inevitable goal against his former club from close range.

Otherwise it was yet another perfect away performance and fully appreciated by the noisy army of almost 2,500 away supporters.

It meant Mansfield had a gap of five points between them in the automatic promotion spots and the chasing pack in fourth place, including a game in hand on MK Dons in fourth.

While promotion is the first hurdle to overcome, Stags are also looking like favourites to win their first Football League title since 1977 amid a sensational season of tumbling records for them.

Crawley Town did them a favour last night by netting a late home equaliser in a 1-1 draw with Stockport County, who trail Stags by four points in second, albeit with a game in hand.

The task should become much clearer over the next two weeks as Stockport host MK Dons on Saturday before the busy Easter period looms.

Mansfield possibly only need to win five of those last eight games to be up with their vastly superior goal difference worth an extra point.

They do have three tough away games to come at Wrexham, Barrow and MK Dons.

But the five home games all look winnable, starting on Saturday with the lunchtime kick-off against struggling Colchester, which is live on Sky TV.

Colchester have not won in their last seven, though they have taken five stubborn draws in that time and will not be easy to break down. But if Stags stay patient and go ahead, it could be another goals-filled afternoon to savour.