Notts County manager Martin Paterson praised the fighting spirit of his side following their come-from-behind 3-2 victory over fellow League Two promotion chasers MK Dons at Meadow Lane.
Nathaniel Mendez-Laing’s brace had twice put the Dons ahead in the opening 13 minutes of the contest.
But Matthew Dennis and then Alassana Jatta responded for County before Tom Iorpenda popped up with an 88th-minute winner to send the hosts up to second in the table.
“I’m so proud that we’ve got to the point where we can win games like that,” said Paterson.
“As much as I’m critical at times, and I keep that in the dressing room, on a human level I’m delighted with the response to go on and win a massive game at home.”
Mendez-Laing opened the scoring after three minutes but County quickly hit back through Dennis.
Mendez-Laing added his second by dinking home a penalty after Laurence Maguire had been fouled by Conor Grant amid a goalmouth scramble.
But Jatta brought County level again, capitalising on a poor defensive header from Maguire in the 26th minute, before Iorpenda lashed home the winner after Craig MacGillivray had dropped a corner.
“I was delighted with the recovery to get it back to 2-2 at half-time, and I wanted to see what they did with their subs before I decided how to try and counter that,” said Paterson.
“When they did, I went for it with my subs, and I tried to put on every player that I felt could get through a gap to try and find that moment.
“It’s a really important home win, but it’s far too early to start talking about anything other than the next game, and trying to get a win.”
Dons boss Paul Warne was relaxed about the impact of the result on his own side’s promotion hopes despite missing the chance to usurp Walsall at the summit and slipping to fifth.
“I really like the way our team played, and I think if you played that game nine more times, I don’t think we’d lose nine of them,” he said.
“I thought we played with courage and had a real go, and generally I was really pleased with our performance tonight.
“We came here as the away team and we had more of the ball, more of the chances, more of virtually everything apart from more of the points.
“It’s just unfortunate, and sometimes football’s like that. In cricket and in rugby, the best team usually wins, but in football I don’t always think that’s the case.
“I’m not saying they didn’t deserve to win, I just don’t think, on the balance of play tonight, that we deserved to lose.”
