Sutton remain rooted to the bottom of League Two after Rob Apter’s late strike earned Tranmere a 1-0 victory.

Visiting keeper Steve Arnold produced a string of good saves, including saving a Connor Jennings penalty, to keep the home side at bay.

But there was nothing he could do to deny Apter stealing all three points at Prenton Park.

Sutton could have gone in front when Luke McGee parried Charlie Lakin’s cross to Harry Smith, who was unable to convert.

Arnold kept out Kieron Morris at the near post before a controversial moment saw Arnold push away an Apter strike before Joe Kizzi blocked Harvey Saunders’ strike on the line – with the hosts claiming Kizzi had used a hand.

McGee kept out Olly Sanderson before Arnold denied Apter and then Regan Hendry.

Saunders was fouled by Ryan Jackson in the box before Arnold thwarted the spot-kick.

Saunders saw an effort tipped over by Arnold, but Apter’s 20-yard strike eventually secured the win to leave Sutton six points adrift of safety.

Walsall claimed a fifth successive victory by beating Doncaster 3-1 to climb to sixth in Sky Bet League Two.

Josh Gordon’s early header was cancelled out by Kyle Hurst but Jack Earing and former Doncaster loanee Mo Faal won it for Walsall.

The Saddlers led in the 18th minute as Liam Gordon put in a pinpoint cross for namesake Josh to bullet a header into the bottom corner.

Rovers were almost two behind as defender Tom Anderson overshot goalkeeper Thimothee Lo-Tutala with a headed backpass but sprinted back to hack off the line.

Walsall should have doubled their lead when Isaac Hutchinson raced clear but fired straight at Lo-Tutala.

Rovers punished that miss in the 62nd minute as Hurst volleyed in Jamie Sterry’s inviting ball across the six-yard box.

But Walsall were back ahead five minutes later as a deep corner found Earing 15 yards out and he drilled home through a crowded goalmouth.

They sealed the points with 10 minutes remaining when substitute Faal nodded home a near-post corner against the team he spent the first half of the season on loan with.

Grimsby moved six points above the League Two relegation zone with a 1-0 victory against rock-bottom Forest Green.

Harvey Rodgers scored the winner early on at Blundell Park to secure Town’s first win in eight matches.

Grimsby settled first and went 1-0 up in the eighth minute when Rodgers looped over Vicente Reyes from the edge of the penalty area.

Chances were at a premium for the remainder of the first half with Rovers midfielder Emmanuel Osadebe dragging a half-volley narrowly wide.

Harvey Bunker took aim upon the restart as Rovers pushed and probed for a way back into what was an all-important relegation showdown.

At the other end, a wayward strike from substitute Kieran Green was as close as Grimsby came to extending their advantage, while Jamie Robson struck over with the last kick to leave Rovers five points adrift in their quest for English Football League survival.

Paul Mullin’s first-half hat-trick helped Wrexham thrash Accrington 4-0 at the Racecourse Ground.

Mullin’s goals and Elliot Lee’s effort before half-time saw Wrexham return to League Two’s top three, with Stanley’s Lewis Shipley sent off late on.

Accrington goalkeeper Radek Vitek kept out Ollie Palmer’s low shot but was unable to stop Mullin’s header from Ryan Barnett’s 17th-minute cross.

Mullin’s lob then hit the side-netting but he made no mistake on 25 minutes when firing home clinically from outside the box.

Mullin completed his quickfire hat-trick after meeting Lee’s teasing 35th-minute cross.

Lee then produced a great finish from Mullin’s one-two, with Vitek preventing the latter’s fourth before half-time.

Vitek stopped Barnett’s goalbound effort and Mullin’s shot in quick succession after the break.

Arthur Okonkwo denied Accrington’s Tommy Leigh after the hour before Vitek’s double save stopped Mullin and substitute Ben Tozer with 20 minutes remaining.

Stanley’s Leslie Adekoya could have netted a consolation but fired over before Shipley saw red in stoppage time after fouling Andy Cannon.

Promotion-chasing Crewe were stunned as Morecambe produced a late fightback to win 3-2.

A first-half header from Elliott Nevitt, the striker’s 12th goal of the season, and a blast from Shilow Tracey soon after the interval appeared to have Crewe heading for their fourth win in their last five games.

But Joe Adams, substitute Jordan Slew and skipper Farrend Rawson netted in less than a quarter of an hour as Ged Brannan’s side secured their first win in four matches, leaving Crewe two points off the League Two automatic-promotion spots.

Jed Garner was inches away from finishing off Joel Senior’s low cross as Morecambe pressed early on. Garner then wasted a good opening when dragging an effort wide of the far post.

Crewe turned defence into attack to take an 18th-minute lead with the ball launched by Charlie Kirk for the chasing Nevitt, whose headed effort was pushed into the air by keeper Archie Mair, only for the striker to polish off the follow-up with another header.

And the Alex made it count after the break when Tracey cut in from the right and drove a powerful shot past Mair from the edge of the box.

Railwaymen skipper Mickey Demetriou went close with a towering header which flew just over.

But Morecambe shocked their hosts with two goals inside five minutes, first cutting the arrears when Max Melbourne pulled the ball across the box and Adams’ side-footed effort slipped under Harvey Davies.

Then when another low shot from Adams was pushed out by the keeper, substitute Slew drove home through a crowd of players to level.

Mair kept out Alex substitute Lewis Leigh’s curling free-kick and then used his feet to block an effort from Josh Austerfield.

And the visitors compounded the misery in the 83rd minute when Rawson finished from close range after Senior’s low cross had exposed the home defence.

Charlie Austin’s late equaliser earned Swindon a 1-1 draw at home to Harrogate.

Swindon had the game’s first big chance when Ricky Aguiar made a clever run in behind Harrogate and managed to slip a pass into Aaron Drinan.

The striker looked to take his shot on early from the edge of the box and it flashed just wide of the near post.

Seven minutes into the second half Anthony O’Connor stole a march from a wide free-kick and ran away from his markers to nod the ball beyond Jack Bycroft and into the far corner of the net and put Harrogate in front.

Swindon almost struck back straight away as Udoka Godwin-Malife got free down the side and his cross into the area deflected back to Paul Glatzel in the area, and his low shot was cleared off the line.

With five minutes remaining, Austin scored a towering header after Zachary Elbouzedi had finally worked enough room to pick him out with a cross from the right.

Gillingham moved into the Sky Bet League Two play-off places with a 2-0 win over Salford.

Goals either side of half-time by Shadrach Ogie and Timothee Dieng earned three points for the gutsy Gills.

Salford’s Conor McAleny struck over the bar and dragged one wide early on.

For Gillingham, Oli Hawkins headed Max Clark’s cross onto the top of the net.

It took 41 minutes for the first shot on target to happen. That came from Curtis Tilt, who volleyed straight at Glenn Morris.

Ogie found a breakthrough just before half-time, heading home from close range after Ethan Coleman set him up.

The Gills doubled their lead at the start of the second half. Theo Vassell was caught in possession by Ashley Nadesan, who cut it back for Dieng to sweep into the far corner.

Elliot Watt forced a good save from Morris, and Matt Smith missed with a header as Salford searched for a route back into the game.

In the end, they were unable to find one against a strong Gillingham defence.

George Maris scored the only goal as Mansfield beat Newport 1-0 to move three points clear at the top of the League Two table.

The Stags weren’t at their recent rampaging best but they did enough to beat a battling Newport and take full advantage of second-placed Stockport’s match at Colchester being postponed.

Maris, Davis Keillor-Dunn and Ollie Clarke all went close in a first half dominated by the visitors.

Seb Palmer-Houlden saw a shot blocked for the hosts moments after the break but Mansfield finally made their superiority count as Maris broke the deadlock five minutes into the second half.

Hiram Boateng missed the target with a free header just beforehand but Maris made no mistake as he confidently turned in a Baily Cargill cross from the left – beating Exiles goalkeeper Nick Townsend at his near post.

Maris, Keillor-Dunn and substitutes Jordan Bowery and Aaron Lewis all had chances to extend the visitors’ lead but one goal proved to be enough for Nigel Clough’s men.

Gillingham moved into the League Two play-off places with a 2-0 win at Salford.

Goals either side of half-time by Shadrach Ogie and Timothee Dieng earned three points for the gutsy Gills.

Salford’s Conor McAleny struck over the bar and dragged one wide early on.

For Gillingham, Oli Hawkins headed Max Clark’s cross onto the top of the net.

It took 41 minutes for the first shot on target to happen. That came from Curtis Tilt, who volleyed straight at Glenn Morris.

Ogie found a breakthrough just before half-time, heading home from close range after Ethan Coleman set him up.

The Gills doubled their lead at the start of the second half. Theo Vassell was caught in possession by Ashley Nadesan, who cut it back for Dieng to sweep into the far corner.

Elliot Watt forced a good save from Morris and Matt Smith missed with a header as Salford searched for a route back into the game.

In the end, they were unable to find one against a strong Gillingham defence.

Johnnie Jackson hailed AFC Wimbledon’s sensational stoppage-time winner against bitter rivals MK Dons as one of his finest moments as a manager.

The match appeared to be heading towards a 0-0 draw after Jack Currie’s delightful looping header hit the woodwork and Stephen Wearne missed an open goal.

However, Ronan Curtis gave the home fans a moment to remember as he finished off a delightful move in the dying seconds to secure all three points.

The defeat is a major blow to MK Dons’ automatic promotion push, leaving them fifth, but Jackson believes the last-minute win can inspire his side as they push to make the play-offs.

“Honestly, it is the highest I have been as a manager and up there with my best moments in football,” he said.

“It is up there. I was a player for a long time and I had some really good moments, but it is up there with anything.

“You’ve got a personal pride when you are a player, but as a manager you can become a bit of a slave to the result.

“To see my team play the way they played and perform the way they did on an occasion like this and get the win makes it really special.

“We were disappointed with the result in January. You can lose a game of football but we realise the importance of it as a football club.

“We just got the away game wrong on a lot of levels, so we were keen to put that right.

“That is the beauty of football in a league season, we were all sat in that changing room after that game wishing that we could have it back.

“Well here was our chance to get it back and we took it.”

MK Dons manager Mike Williamson believes his side need to be humble in defeat.

“I am gutted for the boys and gutted for the fans,” he said.

“I’m not going to be critical of the players, our in-possession stuff was not as good as it could have been but they had to stand up to a lot of balls into the box so we had to defend with strength and depth.

“We needed to put our bodies on the line and we did that, but football can come down to moments.

“We missed a chance and they went up the other end and scored, that’s how brutal the game can be.

“I feel as though dusting ourselves down and removing the emotion, we’ve got to soak it all in.

“It’s hard to be humble in defeat but that’s what we are going to be, we accept it and the fact that we weren’t good enough to come here on the day and convincingly feel that we should have won the game.”

Ronan Curtis scored a sensational stoppage-time winner as AFC Wimbledon dented MK Dons’ automatic promotion hopes with a 1-0 victory against their bitter rivals at Plough Lane.

Referee Charles Breakspear showed Michael Kelly a yellow card in the fifth minute, but Wimbledon fans wanted a straight red after the goalkeeper appeared to foul Omar Bugiel on the edge of the penalty area.

James Tilley’s driven effort was pushed behind for a corner and the resulting set-piece caused chaos in the visitors’ box before being cleared away to safety.

A passionate home crowd was nearly silenced after half-time when the ball was turned goalwards following a melee in the box. However, John-Joe O’Toole made a vital block to keep the game goalless.

Dan Kemp forced a solid stop from Alex Bass as both sides looked to take the lead, and either side could have won it in the closing stages.

Jack Currie’s delightful looping header hit the woodwork before Stephen Wearne missed an open goal.

However, Curtis had the final say, slotting the ball past Kelly with seconds remaining.

Karl Robinson has told his Salford players to have a winning mentality if they want to remain at the club after they were held to a frustrating 1-1 draw with Colchester.

The Ammies looked on course for a fifth victory in nine games thanks to Matt Smith’s first-half opener – his 22nd goal of the season.

However, a battling Colchester side snatched a point thanks to young substitute Bradley Ihionven’s late strike.

Salford, whose eight-match unbeaten start under new boss Robinson came to an end at the weekend, could not source a late winner, despite their best efforts.

“We’re here to win and these players are paid to win,” Robinson said when asked about his side’s aim for the season.

“They’re professional athletes and that’s my mentality. If they don’t believe in that, then they can go.

“Tonight, it’s probably a fair result, but we were nowhere near our best. It was an under-par performance with stupid actions.

“When you look at how fragmented we were with the amount of players we’ve had out, I can’t be too disappointed.

“But I’m not in the industry to draw games so there’s so many elements of our game that could’ve been better.

“The players in the dressing room are down because they know they’ve underperformed and missed another opportunity to get three points.

“It was a real fight to put a team on that pitch; they competed, but we’ve not seen the quality or fluidity that we’ve seen from a Salford City team.”

Meanwhile, Colchester continued their mini-revival under new boss Danny Cowley.

The U’s, who sit five points above the Sky Bet League Two relegation zone, have now lost only one of eight games since their change in the dugout.

“There’s no point me worrying about other teams because I can’t control their destinies, but I can only control ours,” said Cowley.

“I’ll put all my energy and my efforts into helping the team; they needed lifting at half-time and we have to fight in those moments.

“We didn’t deserve to go in 1-0 down, but we did, and you have to then respond. And certainly in the latter part of the game, we did that.

“Credit to the players, but we just couldn’t win it. After two tough away games and on two difficult pitches, we take the points and move on.

“We’re trying to win every game because that’s our mentality. We’ve now only had one loss in eight, so we are becoming a really competitive team.

“But we’re working really hard to try and turn these draws into wins.

“It’s just about us; we’re trying to get to 50 points as that will be enough for us to retain our status.”

Gavin Gunning hopes Swindon’s 3-1 victory over Tranmere will help to change his side’s momentum.

Rushian Hepburn-Murphy’s double to end the Robins’ five-match winless run.

Gunning said: “It was a massive three points, it is always going to be massive for a team in our position who have not had the most fantastic of runs, which has been long ongoing, unfortunately.

“Hopefully this can flip us around – we have won one game, we are not knocking on the play-offs or going to win the league or anything but we are going in the right direction.

“It is a positive thing and the game management was good at the end, Rushian was struggling and we were having to play with 10.

“They had a few openings at the end and they overhit a few crosses, but other than that I don’t think they had a chance.”

Following an opening 20 minutes desperately low on quality, Sean McGurk added some. He got the ball in the box, sold the defender with a dummy and then stuck his shot beyond Luke McGee.

Tranmere did not need long to respond as a block fell to Rob Apter on the edge of the area and he drilled an effort first time into the bottom corner.

Swindon took their lead back as Udoka Godwin-Malife threaded a pass through the defence from inside his own half and Hepburn-Murphy exploded onto it, rounded the goalkeeper and tucked home the finish.

The 25-year-old had his second after the break when he galloped beyond the defence and a fine ball through and tucked his shot beyond the goalkeeper.

Nigel Adkins remained philosophical about his side’s performance and the lessons his side would learn despite their defeat.

He said: “We started very brightly and were very good.

“We responded well to their goal, got ours and had a couple of other good chances. We had some good spells. At times we had a lot of the ball and created some good situations.

“We were probably too open for their second goal and the third was good counter-attacking football, but there were two exceptional passes they played for those goals.

“For some of the young players, it was a good opportunity and it was a good one for me to utilise the squad. I’ll watch the game back in the cold light of day to see what we can learn from it.

“We’re constantly learning. We’ve proved we can do it, so we now have to go and show it on a consistent basis.”

Boss Steve Cotterill praised his side’s ‘magnificent’ performance after Forest Green conceded a stoppage-time equaliser to draw 1-1 with promotion-chasing Wrexham.

Emmanuel Osadebe’s third-minute strike looked to have given second-from-bottom Rovers a third win in four but Paul Mullin’s penalty in the closing stages gave the visitors a point.

Cotterill said: “I’m proud of the performance. They’re not silky but they are honest, hard-working, disciplined performances.”

Forest Green made a lightning start to the game as Osadebe exchanged a neat one-two with Christian Doidge before he slotted home a curling effort past Wrexham goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo on three minutes.

Kyle McAllister then drove into space and delivered a cross for Doidge, who headed goalwards but Okonkwo parried around the post.

Mullin teed up Elliot Lee on the edge of the area but his effort was wayward and blazed over the crossbar.

Wrexham’s interplay on the edge of the Forest Green penalty area saw Andy Cannon shift a yard of space but his effort was pouched by goalkeeper Vicente Reyes.

Reyes was forced into a smart save when Rovers defender Richard Keogh diverted towards his own goal but the Norwich loanee parried out for a corner.

Forest Green were inches away from doubling their lead when Charlie McCann’s deflected effort bounced just past the far post.

Wrexham continued to press for an equaliser and Mullin had two long-distance efforts in as many minutes but Reyes wasn’t forced into action.

Luke Bolton delivered a low cross for substitute Jack Marriott but he only slammed into the side netting.

However, Jamie Robson brought down Mullin in stoppage time and he made no mistake from the spot to rescue a point for the visitors.

Cotterill continued: “I think the penalty is harsh.

“At the time it comes, it’s a real kick in the teeth but it’s another point on the board and it could be very important come the end of the season.

“We’d restricted them – and hopefully we’ve eradicated a few problems that we had when I first came in.

“We need to become better on the ball on turnover but they’ve been brilliant since I’ve come in.”

Wrexham boss Phil Parkinson was relieved to leave with a point.

He said: “When teams have that early lead and drop the players back, it’s hard to break down.

“We struggled to work the goalkeeper enough – the structure was right, we just couldn’t find that bit of quality.

“We kept going. We never hid from the ball, it didn’t always come off for us but there was no lack of trying.

“We got that moment and it could be an important point.

“We’re having a moment where we’re not producing but that will come. We need something like that penalty to get us running.”

Manager Graham Coughlan congratulated striker Will Evans on becoming only the second Newport player since John Aldridge to score 20 EFL goals in a season – and then told him he should have a bigger haul.

Evans set the ball rolling in a 4-1 romp at Harrogate with a penalty just past the half-hour mark before being joined on the scoresheet by Offrande Zanzala (two) and substitute Seb Palmer-Houlden.

But the former Bala Town striker also missed a simple header, with Coughlan saying: “John Aldridge was an unbelievable player and Dom Telford (the first player since Aldridge to hit 20 for Newport) knew
how to score a goal or two as well for the club, so I’m delighted for Will to be mentioned in the same breath.

“But I will pat him on the back now and then ask him for more and remind him of the other ones he could have had tonight. Hopefully, he can get a few more now and help us finish the season strongly.”

The victory was the Exiles’ sixth in eight league contests and moved them to within two points of a play-off spot.

Just as importantly for Coughlan, though, it rewarded the fans who travelled up in midweek from south Wales following a 3-0 loss at MK Dons on Saturday.

“It was a hell of a victory and performance that shouldn’t be under-estimated at a tough place like Harrogate,” he added. “I thought we were different class.

“We were all annoyed on Saturday with our performance levels. We let a lot of fans down and were determined not to do that again, so that victory was for them because they’ve been brilliant this season and they have travelled a very long way to be here on a Tuesday night.”

Harrogate boss Simon Weaver made four changes to his starting XI in a bid to freshen his ranks but admitted the decision backfired, with the team not managing a shot on target until “rested” sub George Thomson grabbed a 78th-minute consolation.

“We were well short of the standards we have tried to maintain over recent months,” Weaver declared. “We didn’t show enough of those facets and made a poor start.

“We didn’t set the tempo and I blame myself for the team that I picked. I thought a few needed a bit of a rest but we did not get the desired response and looked lightweight, so deserved the result.

“It did not look right from the off. We looked out of sync and we have hit the buffers a bit now.

“Our confidence looked short and we were not up to the standard required at both ends of the pitch, so this has to be a wake-up call because I have to be honest with how poor we were.”