Burnley defender James Tarkowski hailed a "huge" victory after the Clarets defeated Brighton 1-0 at Turf Moor and rose out of the Premier League relegation zone.
The result saw Sean Dyche's men end an eight-match winless streak – in which they had lost six times – and move up from second-bottom to 17th place in the table.
Tarkowski scored what proved the winner in the 40th minute when Jack Cork hit a shot and the ball went in off the centre-back's chest, and he was also key late on as the hosts stood firm in the face of Brighton pressure.
The 26-year-old said in quotes on burnleyfootballclub.com: "It's a huge win and so important.
"You can see how hard the lads were working at the end there and the desire they were showing to keep that clean sheet.
"It's a great day all round and it's important to be out of the bottom three."
Burnley, who finished seventh last term, now have 12 points from 16 games in a season that saw their bid to make the Europa League group stage end with elimination at the hands of Olympiakos in the play-offs in August, and League One Burton knock them out of the Carabao Cup in September.
Tarkowski said: "I thought the fans were terrific (on Saturday). You could see how much it means to them and us.
"They have stuck with us because we all know it's not been a great start to the campaign, but we've had some great times over the past few seasons and we need them now for the rest of the season."
Tarkowski withdrew from England's stand-by list for the World Cup over the summer to have a hernia operation, and had further surgery in November.
Having missed two Burnley games that month and then been an unused substitute at Crystal Palace on December 1, he played the full duration of Wednesday's 3-1 loss to Liverpool and the Brighton match on Saturday.
And he added: "From my own point of view it's also the best I've felt for a long time.
"It's good to be back out there and be free and be able to give my all."
Chris Hughton's Brighton, who dropped a place to 11th, had gone into the game looking for a third successive win.
In the second half, substitute Jurgen Locadia blew a great chance to equalise as he headed over, and Solly March sent a strike narrowly wide.
Seagulls captain Bruno said on brightonandhovealbion.com: "It's disappointing, especially with the way we lost the game. We had really good possession throughout the game, and got into the final third a lot of times.
"We couldn't create as many chances as we wanted, but it was a really good performance away from home.
"We knew that we'd have a lot of second balls to deal (with), but I thought we dealt with it well and didn't concede chances. We had so much possession and got into the right areas, but we just couldn't score."
ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'});
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Press Association Sport staff');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', 'be3b0bea-2b0b-4c7d-8f03-3452dc3d1e2a');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:club-news,paservice:sport:football');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', 'sport:football');
ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'Tarkowski thrilled with Burnley desire in \u2018huge\u2019 win over Brighton'});
