Callum Davidson hailed his St Johnstone side for pulling off a “massive” victory in their battle against relegation.
The Perth side climbed off the bottom of the cinch Premiership with a spirited 2-1 win at home over third-place Hearts.
It was only their second triumph in any competition since the end of October and lifted them above Dundee.
Proud Davidson said: “It’s a massive three points relative to the season but we’ve got to keep pressing, keep pushing forward – it’s only three points so let’s get another three points and keep climbing the league.
“I thought in the first 70 minutes we were really good. Melker Hallberg was outstanding for 70 minutes, along with the rest of the players. The first goal was superb.
The performance was great to see. I said to (coach) Steven MacLean it was back to enjoying watching them play again and seeing their desire to go and do things.
“As a defender, I enjoy watching them making tackles and blocking crosses. Too easily we’ve let crosses come in this season but we gave help to the back three and the keeper today. Elliott Parish made some great saves to help get us the three points.
“At home we’ve struggled for some form but they had confidence and belief in themselves today. You can see the confidence coming back into the team – I’ve seen it coming back since the Kelty game (in the Scottish Cup last month) and now we all want to start climbing the league and putting teams under pressure.
“It’s about looking forward and being positive and it was easy to be that way after today.”
Hearts manager Robbie Neilson lamented a poor display as his side suffered a third league defeat in succession. The Tynecastle side are nine points clear of city rivals Hibernian in third place, but were loudly booed off by their supporters.
“It was a disappointing performance,” he said. “The last two weeks haven’t been good enough for the level we’ve shown we can get to. We’ve had a really good start and middle to the season but we’re going through a wee dip just now.
“We need to get back to being aggressive with the ball. We were tentative which was disappointing. We should be putting on a better display and have to take the flak that comes with losing but we’re sitting clear in third and we need to remember where we are. We aren’t a good enough team to win every single week.”
