Taking on Celtic Colts, who were second place in the National Conference at the start of play, the Stags made a superb scoring start to the game and led for most of the first half, but it was their opponents' superior fitness that really made the difference.

Stags went ahead at the Brewery Field in only the first minute, when after a superb passing move Marcus Rose went over and Mark Coulson converted.

Phil Cushion grabbed a try back for the Colts on seven minutes but, a seemingly easy conversion was missed by Lee Williams, leaving Hemel in the lead.

It was an advantage they extended minutes later when giant winger Dave Afreh crashed over on the right.

The two sides traded tries, Stuart McIntyre dotting down in the corner for Hemel, before the game really swung in Colts' favour. Lee Williams scored underneath the sticks to level the scores, before an interception allowed Gary Williams to run 80 metres to score.

It all could have be different though, as in the moments leading up to Gary Williams' try Ashley Fyson and Kane Phillips both went extremely close to putting Stags back into the lead.

Colts dominated the second half, scoring their first try after five minutes of play when Elliot Kear set up Greg Callow to go over in the corner.

Lee Williams weaved his way through the Stags' defence to grab his second, before Kear and then Gary Williams added their own tries. Emmanuelli successfully kicked the extras.

Cushion scored his second of the game on 64 minutes while Callow, put through straight from kick-off, finished the scoring with his second of the day.

One positive for Stags was the performance of debutant Cameron Mann who led the way making hard yards and was voted the players player man of the match.

Stags' coach Troy Perkins said: "The first half we were the better team but in the second period we suffered a few injuries and just ran out of steam.

"There were a lot of positives. We looked good with the ball against the best team in the competition and our Aussie debutant Cameron Mann looked really good. He will be a good asset to our team."

Hemel's next game is at 2.30pm at Pennine Way this Saturday against Dewsbury Celtic, and Perkins believes it is a must-win game.

"I feel we need to win three of the last five games, including our two home matches," he added. "If we play anywhere near as well as we did against the Colts I think we'll get a win."