A goal at the end of each half from on-loan striker Daniele Dichio earned Millwall a hard fought 2-1 victory at Crewe.
Dichio collected his second brace since joining the Lions from West Brom and his second effort deep into stoppage time gave Crewe no time to respond.
Dennis Wise's team were good value for the three points. They dominated the first half with some skilful play in difficult conditions and in the second half, although Crewe fought back after an Andy Roberts' unfortunate own goal, the visitors could rightly point to enjoying most of the play over the 90 minutes.
Dichio's strike partner Kevin Braniff had proved a handful for the Crewe defence early in the game and it was his pass as part of a four-man move which gave Dichio a difficult opportunity at the far post.
The forward skilfully pulled the ball across home keeper Clayton Ince from a tight angle to give his side the lead on the stroke of half time.
Little had been seen of Crewe as an attacking force in the first 45 minutes but they improved after the break and youngster Paul Edwards came close on a couple of occasions.
His first-time volley flew just a yard past the post and he later had one good effort on the turn, which tested Millwall's debutant loan keeper Andy Marshall.
But the hosts' best chance of getting back into the game appeared to be from set plays, where Kenny Lunt tried his luck with several free-kicks.
One just before the hour mark from 25 yards whistled past Marshall's top left stanchion and seven minutes later the keeper was beaten when Roberts sliced Lunt's long range free-kick over him into the top corner.
Crewe were spurred on by that and Edwards and Michael Higdon had chances, although Dichio forced a good save from Ince underneath his bar with a powerful header from a corner kick.
Higdon was presented with the best chance of finding what would have been an undeserved winner for the Railwaymen, but fired horribly wide after he was put in on goal by James Robinson.
Within minutes Dichio punished Crewe for that glaring miss when he picked up a loose ball following a throw in and belted a low drive from 25 yards into Ince's bottom right-hand corner.