Mansfield Town manager Billy Dearden parted company with the club after seeing his side slump to their eighth defeat in nine home games.

Fellow strugglers Rochdale, who themselves had lost five of their six games, went ahead when Gary Jones swept home Rene Howe's low cross.

Adam Le Fondre turned in Adam Rundle's cross to make it 2-0 after the restart and Jones drilled in a third.

And Howe rounded keeper Carl Muggleton for the fourth on 67 minutes.

Mansfield: Muggleton, Mullins, Jelleyman (D'Laryea 46), Baptiste (Arnold 65), Buxton, Atkinson, Briggs (Wood 69), Dawson, Hamshaw, Louis, Michael Boulding.
Subs Not Used: White, Holmes.

Booked: Louis.

Rochdale: Spencer, Kennedy, Stanton (Holness 40), McArdle, Ramsden, Rundle, Jones (Basham 69), Perkins, Higginbotham (Muirhead 70), Le Fondre, Howe.
Subs Not Used: D'Laryea, William Buckley.

Goals: Jones 27, Le Fondre 47, Jones 55, Howe 67.

Att: 2,351.

Ref: Paul Armstrong (Berkshire).