Gary Jones has set his sights on back-to-back Valley Parade victories after admitting he had almost forgotten what the winning feeling was like.

City pulled out of their 14-match drought by beating Port Vale on Tuesday – their first success since the end of November.

With MK Dons visiting this weekend, Phil Parkinson’s rejuvenated troops can now focus on cementing their mid-table security after edging back into the top half of League One.

Skipper Jones voiced the relief within the squad at claiming that first win since they had last come out on top at stadium:mk.

“We should savour this – it’s been a long time coming for everyone,” he said.

“We’ve had so many draws. We’d rather win, lose, win, lose, win, lose and be much further up the table.

“We just appreciate what it’s like to win at last. They have been very few and far between.

“I thought we played well all game. That’s what’s been missing of late – we’ve played a good 45 minutes here and 45 minutes there.

“But we were on Port Vale from the start and getting that goal was a massive monkey off our backs. We should enjoy it.

“We’ve got a tough game on Saturday against MK Dons, who are a very good footballing team.

“But this will hopefully give us a massive shot in the arm and we can really look forward to it.”

Jones continued his run of form with another high-energy effort against Vale and supplied the corner for Carl McHugh to head home the clinching goal in stoppage time.

The captain said: “We thought it was going to be one of those days again when Reachy (Adam Reach) hit the post and we had a few scrambles when the ball wouldn’t go in.

“But Carl McHugh is quite adept at popping up. He’s quite small, so I don’t think people realise how good he is in the air.

“He does really attack the ball – but it did seem to take absolutely forever to go in!”

It was also City’s first win in 11 home games and Jones paid tribute to the fans for their backing.

He said: “The supporters were unbelievable. After the run we’ve been on, they didn’t get frustrated. They were behind us from the start and the atmosphere was fantastic.

“We appreciate them so much and I’m so pleased for them that we could get that win at last.”

With two more home games on the agenda, Phil Parkinson is keen to see that Tuesday’s good work is not wasted.

The City chief stressed: “You can see how much it meant to everyone and we’ve got to capitalise on it.

“The most important thing before the next game is that the lads look after themselves and we get the level of training right. We want to produce another performance like that.

“We’ll sit down as a staff and decide whether to go with fresh legs in the team or stick with the same 11.”