St Johnstone breathed life into their Premiership survival bid with a dramatic late victory over Motherwell.
And now boss, Simo Valakari, believes his team are starting to force momentum to turn in their favour.
Goals in the 86th and 88th minutes secured a priceless win.
It was the first in Saints colours for both men – substitute Taylor Steven and then centre-back, Bozo Mikulic.
The Perth side were staring at another Premiership loss after Andy Halliday had scored an early penalty but this time the team refused to accept it wasn’t going to be their day.
“We feel the opposite of how we did after the St Mirren game, that is for certain!” said Valakari, whose team’s slump over the festive period was sparked by a collapse against the Buddies.
“The bottom line is we needed these three points if we’re going to make a push.
“I feel so happy for the players, the club and the fans because it was a great atmosphere at the end.
“I felt we did a lot of good things, we got into the right positions and kept going with what we have been doing.
“What happened early on is why we are where we are.
“We had a good cup game, tried to take the positives out of it and everyone was buzzing in training building up to this.
“Then seconds in, bang, we give away a penalty and are a goal down.
“We have never been able to use the positive moments to build momentum so far this season.
“So to come back and win it the way we did, it could be very significant.
“It wasn’t luck, it was down to the boys pushing and pushing, scoring a goal and then going for another one.
“The players who came into the game made a difference, so we were able to push right to the very end.
“Of course, the small margins went in our favour today – VAR let the goal stand (after a check for offside), when in other games it has gone against us.
“When you do the good things then good things happen to you.”
Jack Sanders sick
Jack Sanders may have played his last game for Saints, with Gillingham keen to take him to League One.
Explaining the defender’s absence from the match day squad, which meant Sven Sprangler playing in the middle of the back three, Valakari said: “It’s nothing to do with the transfers, he was sick.
“He called me this morning to say: ‘Sorry gaffer, I can’t play’.
“We don’t have any other defenders so there was no training or anything with who played there.
“I have to credit them because we had to put Sven there and so early the penalty happened.
“You get these in football, the ball bounces.
“After that start it would have been easy to crumble but he showed his mentality.
“They all showed it because it would have been easy to just think everything is going against us again.
“But everyone can see the fight is there.
“What they did today tells me everything about them, the team is very together.
“That is the only way we will give ourselves a chance to survive, everyone has to stick together.
“Nothing has changed, though, we enjoy tonight, recover tomorrow and then start again for the next game.
“There is a lot of talk about momentum in football, when you have it the ball starts bouncing for you and things start dropping for you.
“But you have to do all the right things for that to happen.”
Goal heroes
On the two goal heroes, Valakari said: “We have been talking about Taylor and how football rewards you when you do the right things.
“Since he came back he has been working so hard, he’s really had his head down.
“He has a lot of capability, he is dangerous in the box.
“And you saw today how calm he is, he showed real calmness to score his goal in what was a hectic moment.
“I was very pleased for Bozo too, it was a great finish!
“He has been close to a goal many times so it was good for him.”
The end of the game was a stark contrast to the beginning.
Stand-in defender, Sprangler, was penalised for a handball in the box after just 20 seconds, with VAR official, Gavin Duncan, picking up the infringement referee, Kevin Clancy, had missed.
Saints didn’t do enough to suggest a comeback was on the cards in the rest of the first half but they had several opportunities to equalise after the break, with Makenzie Kirk hitting the post.
Just as it looked like the gap to second bottom would reach double figures, as would a winless league run, Steven slotted the ball home after Sam Curtis put it into the danger area and then Mikulic smashed a shot into the net from a Graham Carey corner.
Conversation