Notts County further eased their relegation fears by stretching their unbeaten run to four matches from which ten points have been gained.
But Port Vale made them fight every inch of the way, showing no signs of a hangover following their 4-1 pasting at Colchester on Saturday.
The quality of the first 45 minutes left a great deal to be desired with few scoring opportunities created and the game was badly in need of a lift in the second half.
Fortunately for the fans it was provided, though there was only one goal to show.
Mark Stallard almost walked the ball into the back of the Vale net for his 18th league goal of the season for Notts, his personal best.
It was one of the few occasions when the tough Vale defence was exposed although Richard Liburd and substitute Simon Ramsden might have done better with late chances.
Without a second goal for Notts, Vale sensed that they could still grab a point and having brought strikers Stephen McPhee and Adrian Littlejohn off the bench, manager Brian Horton went for broke by throwing central defender Sam Collins into the frontline.
But Notts were secure at the back to such an extent that Vale did not once test home keeper Steve Mildenhall in any serious way.
Ian Richardson was the star of the Notts backline and the Magpies survived the loss through injury of their two most experienced midfielders, Darren Caskey going off in the first half and Ian Baraclough in the second.
The atmosphere towards the finish became increasingly tense, but Notts held firm for only their second clean sheet since Christmas. It could not have been more timely.