Port Vale 0 - 2 Notts County

Today's victory is brought to you by the Rocky Balboa school of "Not Going Down Despite Being Completely Pummeled from Start to Finish".

Notts County travelled to Port Vale and were under the cosh for most of the game, the opposition clocking up 24 shots and 18 corners, but nevertheless scored two unanswered goals to record the unlikeliest of wins in Staffordshire.

The away side actually started the brighter, Vale goalkeeper Sam Johnson having to claim from two Notts attacks within the first two minutes.

In the 10th minute, Mustapha Dumbuya was forced to clear a shot off his line, Vale clearly in the ascendency, but just a minute later came the first Magpie sucker punch.

Veteran Gary Jones, his side breaking from a Vale attack, connected beautifully onto the ball from about 25 yards out, sending a stunning volley past Johnson into the net to send the travelling support into raptures.

Bad news came the Magpies' way midway through the first half as Blair Adams, declared fit before the game, had to be subbed off as early as the 28th minute. Curtis Thompson came on in his place.

Just after the half-hour mark, Haydn Hollis nearly doubled his side's lead, but the young defender wasn't able to connect with Jones's free kick.

The two sides proceeded to exchange several more half-chances, but no more goals were to be scored before the break.

The best Notts chance of the game came in the 50th minute when Liam Noble was sent through one-on-one against Johnson, but the Vale keeper deflected the ball over with his leg.

After the hour mark, the home side burst into life, Colin Daniel mistiming a volley in the 65th minute and Tom Pope firing wide from a tight angle just moments later.

By the 70th minute, it was backs to the wall for Notts, as Shaun Derry's side had to thwart several chances in quick succession.

Pope, Daniel and Mark Marshall all plugged away with efforts which seemed to suggest that a Vale goal was imminent.

However, with just four minutes to go of the game, came yet another Notts sucker punch (and how good does it feel to be on the right side of these this season!), courtesy of Noble's deflected free kick.

Game over. After huffing and puffing for the last half hour, Vale were left disconsolate as their efforts ultimately led to nothing.

Save for another half-chance by Marshall in injury time, there was little more action, and the final whistle ultimately blew on a topsy-turvy and nail-biting game that, fortunately, went the right way.