Harriers' best performance of the season so far saw them blow away in-form Mansfield and erase the memories of the horror showing at Fleetwood in midweek.

Steve Burr made a number of chances to the side that had lost 5-2 at Highbury; Tom Sharpe came in for his first start of the season while Callum Gittings came back after injury and Nick Wright, Jack Byrne, Jamille Matt and Luke Medley were all recalled.  The changes paid off almost immediately as Harriers took the lead after just six minutes; Gittings' short corner on the right brought Lee Vaughan into the action and his cross to the far post was headed home by Kyle Storer.  The celebrations of the opening goal were still ongoing as Gittings split the home defence wide open with a killer through ball for Wright to race onto before slotting past Alan Marriott in the home goal to double the advantage.

When Mansfield did venture forward they were thwarted by a Harriers defence that stood firm,even when Danny Lewis was beaten; on ten minutes Anthony Howell rose to meet a free-kick from deep on the left but his header was cleared by Storer.  Harriers had the game more-or-less sewn up by midway through the half when they were awarded a penalty after skipper Mike Williams was brought down by Lindon Miekle.  Vaughan took the penalty, sending Marriott the wrong way, to record his second goal in as many games, both from the spot.  Things were going so badly, now, for The Stags that boss Paul Cox made a double substitution on the half hour mark to try to change things around.

After the interval Harriers continued to dominate but had to soak up some early pressure from the home team.  Just three minutes into the half Paul Bolland rattled the crossbar, Lewis grabbing onto the ball as it rebounded out, and then two minutes later at the other end Matt set up Gittings who did the same, the loose ball rebounded to Storer who fired high and wide.

Harriers should have increased their lead further on the hour; a long pass through the inside right channel set Wright clear, he broke into the penalty area but over-hit his pass to Matt at the far post giving his team-mate no chance to reach it.  Shortly afterwards Storer curled a free-kick over the wall and just over the bar.

On 69 minutes things went from bad to worse for Town as Louis Briscoe was sent-off after a bad challenge on Vaughan.  With 15 minutes remaining Mansfield came closest to reducing the arrears; Lewis palmed away a cross from the right to Ross Dyer who saw his shot cleared off the line by former Stag Luke Jones, Jones then cleared Bolland's follow-up effort.  Soon afterwards it was Sharpe who was clearing after Dyer's shot was saved by Lewis.

Late on it was Harriers who looked most likely to add to the score; substitute Marc Williams sent Matt clear through the middle but his shot was saved by Marriott.  Moments later Wright got into the penalty area again, taking the ball round Marriott and sliding it square to debutant sub Mickey Demetriou who had his shot cleared off the line by Ben Futcher.