Stevenage manager Alex Revell hailed his “extremely special” squad as they picked up a deserved 1-0 win at home to Wrexham in Sky Bet League One.
Louis Thompson got the only goal of the game in the 10th minute and they comfortably held the highly-fancied Dragons for the rest of an enthralling encounter.
“I’m so proud of this group,” said Revell. “I love working with them every day and that performance typifies the group that we are.
“The first half was some of the best football we’ve played.
“I thought that we’ve had brilliant games last year, some brilliant ones in League Two, but I just thought we had a lot of control of the ball and created good chances.
“What we’ve got in this dressing room is extremely special and the performance deserved the win for sure.”
The way Boro defended their lead caught the eye, helping them to a sixth clean sheet in nine league games.
And Revell hopes the fans are as proud as he is, adding: “It’s a really proud day for everyone here because we won’t have been everyone’s favourites to win.
“They had more of the ball in the second half but they’re going to.
“When they go long it is difficult but, to a man, every single player deserves huge praise and I hope that everybody goes home really proud to support Stevenage and proud to have been here.
“This was a big game for us and our challenge now is to keep going.”
Wrexham boss Phil Parkinson was disappointed at the lack of chances created by his side.
He said: “We never got going after the goal in the first half, apart from two or three moments where we got the ball in to (Steven) Fletcher and mounted an attack.
“But they hurried us out of possession. We weren’t quick enough to make angles, we weren’t quick enough to react to their intensity and it took us to the break really to settle everybody down.
“We felt we had a great chance of getting back into it but we needed to show more and I felt we did in the second half.
“We dominated the game. We were always going to be vulnerable on the break as we had to throw caution to the wind.
“But we just couldn’t produce a moment or a cross despite getting into a lot of good positions.
“The ball just wouldn’t fall for us around the box.
“They’re a hard team to play against. We know that they play into areas and they kind of smother you a little bit on this tight pitch.
“But my disappointment is not producing a moment because if we had got one, I think we would have gone on to win the game.”
