Dundee United manager Mixu Paatelainen extolled the battling qualities of his side after an impressive 3-0 win over Ross County in Dingwall.
The victory cut the gap at the bottom of the table to eight points and boosts United’s chances of survival.
An early goal from United skipper Paul Paton and second-half strikes from Billy McKay and substitute Ryan Dow saw them run out comfortable winners.
Paatelainen said: “That’s absolutely one of our best days so far.
“For a change, we are able to enjoy it.
“I thought it was a good fighting performance against a good team.
“We’ll come here again in a week’s time in the Scottish Cup and I’m sure it will be a tough one again – even tougher – but I’m so pleased with everybody’s effort.
“We scored three goals away from home and kept a clean sheet.
“It is more than welcome.
“They showed the battling qualities but we’ve had that for a number of weeks now.
“We do make silly mistakes at times and we’ve been punished in the past, but thankfully not today.”
Paatelainen admitted there was still a lot to do.
He said: “We have a long way to go.
“I’m delighted today we narrowed the gap, but we have a tough one on Wednesday against Aberdeen.
“I’m delighted it is at home but we need similar attitude and application from the players, determination to be first on the ball, and then we have a chance.”
Paton was left unmarked to head in a corner in the 10th minute and United killed the game off in a five-minute second-half spell when McKay slammed in Scott Fraser’s ball across and Dow headed the third.
County boss Jim McIntyre accepted his players had an off day.
He said: “We’ve lost 3-0 – and deservedly so.
“We started the game well enough and lost a really poor goal from the set-play. That really gave United a wee bit of impetus and something to hang onto.
“I think where they were far better than us today was in that they played a lot better percentage balls. They fought and scrapped for everything.”
County were without a couple of recognised full-backs and gave 19-year-old Christopher McLaughlin his debut.
“The youngster did not disappoint and won the home club’s man-of-match award.
McIntyre said: “We had four or five players who were way off the mark today. When you have that, you’re going to struggle to win a game.
“We had a couple of suspensions. I thought young McLaughlin did well on his debut.”
But the County boss refused to be too hard on his players.
“Too many, as I say, were off the pace but from that point of view I’ve got to cut them a bit of slack because they’ve been fantastic this season,” he said.
“As disappointed as I am by the performance and the result, it’s about how we bounce back. That’s most important thing.”