No 'sexy football' at Hull City, just a priceless win in race for the Premier League
There were holes to pick in Hull City's 4-2 win over Derby County, but all that mattered was those three little letters.
After four matches without, Hull got a win.
A loss would have put Derby three points behind, victory held Ipswich Town's feet to the fire.
They have a game in hand but the third-placed team are only ahead of the Tigers on goal difference and host them next Tuesday.
"It was always going to be a game where you saw who stood up and wanted to be counted," commented Kyle Joseph, inset.
Hull's players stood up.
They conceded two sloppy goals but kept bouncing back.
Oli McBurnie scored the sort of lovely goal on the turn you almost expect of a centre-forward as good as him to turn 1-1 into 2-1. John Egan scored a similar goal you do not expect of a centre-back for 2-2 to become 3-2. Lewis Koumas came off the bench to score the fourth.
"It wasn't champagne football, it was a roll your sleeves up and puff your chest out," said Joseph.
But Yorkshire football fans do not pay to see works of art, they come for drama, and Hull's more direct football – designed to take a scruffy pitch out of the equation – provided it. So did conceding whenever they went in front in the first half.
You can leave the champagne in the fridge, Hull just needed something which hit the spot.
"I said to the lads, I don't care about the impression, this is for something, maybe next time," said Sergej Jakirovic. "They showed that we can play pragmatic football."
"We needed that after the past couple of games," added Joseph after a 0-0 with Watford was followed by three defeats. "Performances and obviously results haven't been good enough.
"We've recognised that it was a real see who's going to roll their sleeves up and battle and fight. Every man who came on the pitch did that.
"We knew it was going to be a difficult test with Derby and the way they play but we stuck together.
"At this stage of the season it's about picking up points. "It's a results-based business.
"It was never going to be sexy football."
Not that the bad bits should be airbrushed out when Hull review this game.
Craig Forysth should have been flagged offside before he scored Derby's first equaliser, but you cannot moan about officials not doing their job if you do not do yours.
Ivor Pandur pushed the ball into danger and no one picked up Forysth. Same for the second equaliser if you swap Forsyth for Sam Szmodics.
"The goals we conceded probably aren't good enough," said an honest Joseph.
"We need to eradicate that."
Szmodics' goal, three minutes after McBurnie's, could have broken Hull and for a while looked to have taken the wind out of their sails.
But Joseph pointed to "the mentality, the character, to have the two goals pegged back, which were our own doing, and to want to score more.
"We really wanted to put a stamp on the game and win the game."
That was it, really – Hull won.