Nigel Pearson was more than happy to win ugly and praised his side for showing grit and determination as Bristol City finally ended their poor run of form away from home.
It didn't come without riding their luck at times with Dan Bentley making an 83rd-minute penalty save to deny Bradley Dack from opening the scoring from the spot.
Han-Noah Massengo was the guilty party, alleged to have pulled back him man in the box, but it counted for nothing when Andi Weimann scored a dramatic last-minute winner to send the 480 travelling fans into raptures.
Captain Bentley made a number of terrific saves throughout the contest, further cementing his position at City's No1 goalkeeper, to ensure a first away win since October and a first clean sheet since the victory over Derby in December.
Speaking after the game, Pearson said: "It was always going to be a tight game and I thought we showed a lot of discipline and we did things today which we’ve not done for a while which is stay in tight games and you’ve always got a chance of winning.
"Whether we were lucky or not is irrelevant, we had some good chances in the game and created some good situations as an away side.
"We won it because we stayed in it and we badly needed a win. Quite simple really. We’ve been criticised and I have been critical so when I’m being critical, I’m criticising myself and everybody.
"To make progress you’ve got to have that as a starting point and I think the players have felt a bit hurt with criticism when people ask questions if you’ve got the guts and the determination to see things through, it’s not a very nice thing to hear and they worked hard today.
"I’ll take ugly wins and ugly draws, I don’t care but of course I’d prefer us to play well and win but what we’ve got to do is combine the art of defending collectively and playing well so we had to shuffle it around just to give us a bit more protection with a flat three."
Speaking of Bentley's performance, Pearson added: "I prefer it if goalkeepers don't have a lot to do but what they do well.
"We don't want goalkeepers getting Man of the Match because they've made 10 saves, with crap defending. Dan didn't have loads to do what he did do today he did well. The penalty save is a key moment in the game, especially with the timing of it.
"We were under quite a lot of pressure at that point in the game but came through so, good."
Pearson even admitted he could afford himself a "wry smile" as his tactical decision to play Weimann at right wing-back paid dividends with the player popping up at the back post to volley home a 17th goal of the season.
"That's the good thing about Andi, he'll play where you put him and he always fancies himself to get a good chance at some point," he added.
"We have played against sides that have done work with keeping him quiet so I have a wry smile to myself today - if they had done a bit of work on that I don't know but he does a good job for the team and that's the most important thing."
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