THEY came, they booed, but, ultimately, he conquered.

Kyle Perry was always going to bear the brunt of stick dished out by the Mansfield Town supporters as he returned to Field Mill in Tamworth colours.

But while he was given little respite through the 90 minutes, he had the last laugh as his side made the short trip back down the A38 with all three points.

Although an interesting sideshow as the archetypal pantomime villain, Perry's contribution to Tamworth's success was, in the end, minimal.

The burly striker made a nuisance of himself as a lone front man, but it was not one of his better days.

As well as a first half booking, he missed two good late opportunities to seal victory and also brought guffaws of laughter from the home fans as he fell flat on his back trying to control a high ball midway through the first half.

It was in midfield where Tamworth won this match, their superior numbers in that department certainly helping their cause.

The Stags' Tyrone Thompson and Gary Mills have been quietly effective in the middle of the park during the opening weeks of this season.

But they were largely second best on this occasion as visiting skipper Jay Smith ran the show.

The former Notts County man has been on trial at Field Mill during David Holdsworth's tenure as manager.

And it is easy to see why his opposite number Gary Mills was so keen to snap him up after an authoritative display that inspired his team.

Tamworth journeyed north with a game plan that they carried out perfectly to make it two wins and a draw without conceding a goal in three visits to Field Mill over the course of the last two seasons.

They defended deep and in numbers but broke quickly and capably at pace with the quicksilver Danny Thomas their most potent threat.

It was from that source they scored what proved to be the match-winning goal on the half hour.

Springing quickly from a Mansfield set piece, Smith worked the ball out to Thomas on the left.

He was closed down by Louis Briscoe, but the Mansfield man missed his tackle, leaving Thomas space to pull the ball back from the left byline for Ben Wilkinson, whose deflected effort found the left-hand corner.

With famous dad, Howard, of Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday, Notts County and England fame, watching in the stands, the midfielder's delight was matched only by that of the Tamworth supporters, who celebrated joyously in the corner of the North Stand.

After that, Tamworth were more than happy to defend what they had – and they did it very effectively too.

There were points when Mansfield threatened to get back on level terms.

Keigan Parker was desperately unlucky in the closing stages of the first half when his direct free-kick beat the defensive wall but clipped the outside of the left-hand post.

After the restart, Tamworth keeper Ross Atkins came to his side's rescued as he pulled off an instinctive save to keep out Louis Briscoe's goalbound effort.

And in the closing stages, the Lambs shot-stopper did well to turn aside substitute Rob Duffy's header under pressure from Paul Connor.

On the whole, though, the home side had very few clear sights of goals despite winning ten corners in the match – eight of them during the second period.

Every time Tamworth looked stretched, they managed to get a vial foot in, block a shot or prevent a cross.

Their two central defenders, Michael Wylde and ex-Eastwood Town man Tom Marshall, enjoyed particularly successful afternoons and did well to nullify the aerial threat of the usually-dangerous Connor.

Is it one thing to attempt to defend and frustrate, but another thing entirely to carry it out.

So it is to their credit the Lambs did so very professionally, even after the early loss of influential midfielder Daniel Bradley through injury.

In the end, as Mansfield threw more and more players forward, the victory margin could have been more emphatic.

Thomas fired straight at Marriott from a good position; Jake Sheridan broke away and shot horribly wide; Perry planted a free header wide of the left-hand post and then blazed wide on the run.

It was, though, academic. Tamworth had already done enough to earn their first away success of the season and follow up their previous weekend's success over well-fancied Luton Town.

For Mansfield, the defeat was very much a missed opportunity having swept to the top of the Blue Square Bet Premier table with a thumping 4-0 win at Altrincham in their previous outing.

The cynics would say it was typical fayre from the Stags – just when they get a better crowd in and things are looking up, they suffer a setback.

The way for the squad to prove the doubters wrong now is to hit back and record positive results at Southport and Newport in their next two games.

Both are going to be difficult matches for Holdsworth's team but, if they are to break the habit of poor Septembers in their previous two seasons, they are hurdles that need to be overcome.

Mansfield remain third in the table, so all is most definitely not lost.

Perry had the pleasure of winning this battle, but the Stags can still win the overall war if they retain their confidence, composure and belief.