Notts County boss Luke Williams expressed his delight at his side's ability to adapt to the artificial surface at Maidstone following their 5-2 win this afternoon.
The Magpies were comfortably in front when Cedwyn Scott's opener and two goals from Jim O'Brien had the visitors cruising on the hour-mark.
But George Elokobi's side then scored twice in two minutes through Roarie Deacon and Harry Fowler to set up a nail-biting finish at the Gallagher Stadium.
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But a Ruben Rodrigues free-kick and O'Brien completing his hat-trick from the penalty spot was enough to see the Magpies take their season total over the 50-point mark away from home, doing all they can to try to take a remarkable National League title race to the final day of the season.
Having replaced Macaulay Langstaff up front, Scott was able to mark his first start in nine outings with a goal five minutes into the encounter, capitalising on a mistake from Yoan Zouma to score his first goal since returning from a two-month spell on the side-lines.
"Honestly it was so important," Williams said about the early goal to ease the nerves amongst his players.
"When the pitch is dry here it very tough for our style because it can be slow and sticky, but on this occasion it was a problem for the opposition because they got stuck on the ball and we capitalised on that, but the early stages of the game are always difficult on artificial pitches because we don't have much experience of it.
"Normally the early stages of the game can be really difficult but to start with a goal like that was perfect."
This season Notts have struggled on artificial pitches when playing away from Meadow Lane, dropping points at Bromley last month while also suffering their first defeat of the season at Dorking Wanderers in September.
"We tried to learn from those two games in our preparations," explained Williams. "We had two separate groups for preparation of guys who adapt better and those that don't - so we tried to learn, but this is a fantastic venue and the pitch is fantastic.
"Imagine the amount of hours you can put down on this pitch without it being churned up, it's absolutely fantastic and a lovely surface and setting - but of course when it's dry any player will tell you it's more challenging, but when it's wet it actually plays like a really good grass pitch.
"Getting the water on it is difficult and when you don't get the rain that's also difficult so we adapted better and scored five goals today once we got to grips with it so I am happy with plenty of things that we did with our preparations."
With Sam Slocombe rested after suffering an injury in preparation for the trip to Andy Woodman's side on an artificial surface, Connell Rawlinson was also missing from the matchday squad despite being present for the trip to the Gallagher Stadium.
But when asked on his absence Williams said: "He is feeling some pain around the hips but it has only come from accumulate fatigue after playing so many minutes at such a high intensity, but we had Richard Brindley to come in who is a fantastic player.
"We need to help Brinds to get him the minutes he requires after a long lay-off and a disjointed return because he has been ill as well.
"We're very fortunate to have two fantastic players there but nothing of huge concern moving forward."
