Oldham manager Lee Johnson saluted his side after seeing them climb into the top six with a 1-0 win at Scunthorpe.
Lee Johnson: Delighted for the players
A great solo strike in the 84th minute from Carl Winchester earned them only their fourth away win of the season in a closely fought game.
"I am delighted for the players," he said.
"I have to confess there was some soul-searching after our 1-0 defeat at Barnsley in midweek.
"But I thought the response from the players today was very, very good.
"I think this will go down as my favourite performance of the season so far.
"As their manager, and their mate, I was really pleased for them.
"They needed a performance like this after last Tuesday.
"It was a great goal from Carl to win us the game. We know just what he is capable of.
"I had a long discussion with him and a couple of the other lads, stressing the need for them to show more consistency.
"I want to see Carl getting eight and nine out of 10 every week, not just eight one week and six or less the next.
"But as a team today I thought we showed good game management against a good Scunthorpe team and we had other chances as well where we could have won by a bigger margin."
The result was a set-back for Scunthorpe manager Mark Robins who suffered only his third defeat in 15 league games since taking charge last October.
"I am unhappy with the result, but I do not think this was a game we deserved to lose," he said.
"We had chances where we could have won it and I think a draw would have been fairer.
"We did not play well enough - and you have to give Oldham some credit.
"They ratted around the pitch well to win the ball.
"The goal they got was one bit of quality in a game of little.
"But when things are not going right, we have got to be able to still grind out a point and we did not do that today
"We have been excellent in recent weeks in the way we move the ball around the pitch but we did not do that today.
"We are much better than this.
"But during the season here will always be ups and downs and this was a down for us."
Scunthorpe's best two chances came early in the game with Neal Bishop clipping the post with a volley and striker Tom Hopper heading just wide.
In the closing stages they gave home debuts from the bench to new signings George Evans, a young midfielder on loan from Manchester City, and Dutch striker Kevin van Veen for his first taste in English football.
But it was not enough to save them from defeat.