Perry's early effort was his seventh goal of the season
High-flying Mansfield saw off nine-man Altrincham in an incident-packed game.
Perry fired the opener into the roof of the net from close range after keeper Stuart Coburn saved Matt Somner's shot.
Chris Senior was sent off for raising his hands to Perry and Stags doubled the lead 12 seconds after the break when Louis Briscoe poked the ball home.
Alty's Matthew Doughty saw red for two yellow cards and although the nine men made it 2-1 through a neat one-on-one finish by Aaron Burns, Stags held on.
But Mansfield boss David Holdsworth will no doubt be furious with the way his side, who are now fourth in the Blue Square Premier, failed to close the game out when they were 2-0 up against nine men with 52 minutes gone.
Perry's early effort had settled the nerves and although Alty's Colin Little rattled the bar with a fine header soon after Senior saw red, the visitors looked in control.
Perry should have added to his tally but shot straight at Coburn after great work by Briscoe and he also volleyed wildly over and then completely mis-kicked from 15 yards.
Briscoe's close-range finish seconds into the second half following a series of fine flick-ons, combined with Doughty's sending off after a needless show of dissent, seemed certain to confirm the result.
But substitute Burns made it 2-1 and the home fans thought they had salvaged an unlikely point only for Robbie Williams' last-gasp header to be disallowed for offside.
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