Substitute Callum Roberts gave the confident visitors a half-time lead with a wonderful solo strike before Daniel Kanu made the points safe midway through the second half.

It gave Paterson’s team a first away win of the Sky Bet League One season and condemned Mansfield to their first home league loss since February.

He said: “It was a very good performance and I thought we were good value for it.

“There were lots of positives and there have been lots of positives over the last three or four weeks.

“It is a really, really good win but it is still early in the season. We still have a lot of work to do and a lot of mountains to climb at this level.

“We are just going to go about our business. The key thing on derby day is the fans and the players go and enjoy it.

“It is a derby win away from home, the fans are happy and the fans are happy.”

He continued: “We got the basics right today and it paid off in terms of performance levels. There were some great individual performances, too many to mention.

“I am delighted for everyone involved. I am very pleased with the performance. From a humble aspect it probably should have been over a little bit earlier.

“I talked to the group before the game about an opportunity for the players, the fans and the clubs. They took on the information and it worked.”

Mansfield boss Nigel Clough admitted his side had got exactly what they deserved.

He said: “We didn’t deserve anything, Notts County played extremely well from the first minute and to the last deserved to win.

“We were a shadow of what we have been in recent weeks. There is a manner to lose and it is bitterly disappointing.

“There are too many reasons why we lost and just a lot of under-par performances and a couple of mistakes.

“It is the second time we have conceded this season with 10 men when someone has gone off injured. I don’t like going down to 10 men unless someone is really injured.

“Their first goal was a brilliant goal but you can’t afford to go down to 10 men. We have to defend it better.

“We spend a lot of time in the week showing videos of other teams conceding goals by giving the ball away on the edge of the box by playing it out in a not sensible way, it’s the first one we have done for some time.

“It was almost game over at 2-0.”