St Johnstone manager Simo Valakari revealed his players answered a rallying call to savour their survival battle with a vital 1-0 win over Ross County.
Makenzie Kirk’s eighth goal of the season in the 67th minute saw Saints halve the gap at the bottom of the William Hill Premiership table to three points.
They travel to 11th-placed Dundee on Saturday with renewed momentum on their side.
The victory was achieved despite the major pre-match blow that defender Bozo Mikulic is set to miss nine months. The Croatian centre-back suffered ACL damage in training.
His replacement, Charlton loanee Zach Mitchell, was outstanding as Saints dominated the game.
Mikulic joined a jubilant dressing room after the victory to toast a terrific result for their chances of escaping automatic relegation.
Valakari said: “We talked before the game about, when things are not going well, it’s easy to get depressed and be negative.
“But you are playing football with your friends so, come on, play with happiness and freedom.
“We are in a difficult situation and there are not many games left, but let’s try to enjoy this.
“The thing that made me most happy was the way the players performed in the pressure they are under.
“It would have been easy to panic – and the same for fans – but we were very patient and tried to control the game.
“We stayed doing what we wanted to, got the goal and could have got more.
“Bozo has ruptured his ACL; he’s seeing a specialist and will get an operation.
“He was the first man in celebrating with the players in the dressing room.
“We didn’t get too down when we lost to Hearts on Sunday – and we won’t get too high now.”
Kirk scored on the rebound after Jordan Amissah had saved from Stephen Duke-McKenna to end a run of five games without a goal.
“It was a quality finish from Makenzie, he’s had expectations on him so it hasn’t been easy when he’s not scoring,” Valakari added.
“But we always said to get into the right positions and the goal would come.”
Ross County manager Don Cowie admitted his team were second-best throughout as they dropped to ninth place.
“St Johnstone were the better team so deserved to win the game,” said Cowie.
“We are an honest group, so we accept that. We just didn’t get to grips with the game and didn’t unsettle them. We’ve played well in recent weeks but didn’t play well here.”
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