Hull City coach Marco Silva believes deserved to beat Watford 2-0 in the Premier League on Saturday despite Oumar Niasse's red card in the first half.
Lazar Markovic put Hull on track to extend their unbeaten home run to 10 matches in all competitions before a stunning Sam Clucas volley wrapped up the points for the hosts.
Victory keeps Hull two points above the drop zone, as relegation rivals Swansea City also won on Saturday, with Silva hailing the importance of his side's win.
"I'm really happy," Silva said. "It was not easy.
"We played with 10 players, but our boys were fantastic and they deserved it."
Niasse was harshly dismissed 25 minutes into the game after a clumsy foul on Watford striker M'Baye Niang and Silva hinted it was the latest controversial decision to have gone against Hull.
"I don't want to talk about this situation and I respect the referee and officials, but this is not the first time that something like this has happened," Silva added. "We have achieved what we needed, but it was very hard.
"I'm really happy but we still have four games to fight. Maybe in January no one would believe in our club to survive. I don't know what the future is."
Watford captain Troy Deeney accepted his side's performance was not up to scratch and explained why he apologised to the team's travelling fans after they suffered a fourth straight away league defeat.
"Not good enough," Deeney said. "We just thought we could play some tiki-taka football against a team fighting for their lives.
"I'm not in the business of apologising, but it's a long journey for our fans and that wasn't good enough, which is why I went over to apologise to the fans. We have a moral obligation to play better.
"We don't play till Monday [at home to Liverpool] and it will be a long hard week. It's just not about this season, it's about next season."
