Nigel Clough believes Burton Albion deserved victory over Reading for the work rate of Tom Naylor alone.
The Brewers moved out of the Championship relegation zone with a win their organised and intentful performance fully warranted in the Royals' 500th game at the Madejski Stadium.
Tom Flanagan's first-half opener was cancelled out by Mo Barrow's close-range finish, by which point Albion should have put the game to bed with one of several gilt-edged chances.
But they showed tremendous resilience to bounce back and claim all three points through Naylor's fortuitious winner, the Burton midfielder charging down Liam Moore's clearance and seeing the rebound skid past Vito Mannone in the home goal.
Naylor's relentness out of possession epitomised Albion's efforts across the pitch on the day as they made it back-to-back wins for the first time this season.
"I think they are two thoroughly deserved victories in a row in the last week," said Clough.
"Today shouldn't have been a getting back to 1-1 situation.
"We had chances to go more than one ahead, we defended very well.
"Then we made half a mistake at the far post with Lloyd Dyer for their goal and we were punished for it - we're not getting away with anything at all.
"That was the only difference.
"We were a bit fortunate with the winning goal, but we deserved it, and Tom especially, just for his endeavour and his honesty.
"Going up, closing down, keeping running and getting a foot in - we deserved it for that."
Burton might well have wilted when Barrow's equaliser hit the net, because they should have wrapped up the points before letting the Royals back in.
Their character can never be questioned, though.
And Clough knows his players were never going to relinquish a lead for a second time.
"We had defended ever so well, Stephen Bywater has had so little to do," he added.
"Then they got a break at the far post, it came past quite a few yellow shirts and John (Brayford) has nearly got a block in.
"But everyone is thinking that Reading are going to go on and get a winner, so it was good to pop up with one up the other end.
"I think you saw after that, we weren't going to concede no matter what after that!"
