Coventry City manager Aidy Boothroyd was a relieved man on Saturday evening after watching his side come off the field with three point for the first time in eleven attempts.
"It was a massive three points," said Boothroyd about the 2-1 home win over Crystal Palace, City's first league win in over two months to the CT.
It has not been a good start to the year for Boothroyd and his team as they went on a poor run of form and results which saw them drop from a comfortable fifth place in the Championship to 16th and without a win in ten games.
To add to their woes, there was a board room dispute surrounding the sale of players against the wishes of some on the board and of the manager. The result was changes in personnel and rumours of financial worries.
Amid the turmoil Boothroyd celebrated his fortieth birthday and the win was a very welcome late birthday present and when asked if he would celebrate his birthday and the win with a bottle of bubbly he said: "It will probably be more like a brown ale because we don't stretch to things like that here."
"We won't be getting over excited but we can certainly enjoy our Saturday night because it has been coming for a while and it has been needed. We needed to get a win and get a foothold on the Championship mountain and now we have got to keep climbing it and building because we have got two really difficult games coming up, including a local derby against our millionaire friends up the road."
Analysing the game in which his side took a well deserved two goal lead, but concede a late goal, Boothroyd said, "It was a little bit shaky at the end but you would expect that considering the run we have been on, but when you look at it as a whole I was very pleased with the result, which was the all important thing. As for the performance, I thought we created a lot of chances."
"I thought their goalkeeper Julian Speroni was fantastic, as he was at Selhurst Park when we played them there. I was pleased about a lot of things. I don't think there was a bad performance from anyone and I thought we were the better team for long periods."
He added: "It was a relief because you sometimes have games where you play ever so well and don't get anything out of it. We have had loads of games where it has been nip and tuck right to the last ditch goal going the wrong side for us, but we went back to basics last week and talked about what it is we want to do and how we want to play and I thought we made some terrific decisions and not only looked strong and organised, and tough to beat, but I thought we played some good football too."
"We have got some difficult games coming up but they can wait for now because we want to enjoy a very good performance and kick on from there."