Johnnie Jackson felt his AFC Wimbledon side dug deep as they moved into the League Two play-off places with a 2-0 win at Tranmere.
Goals from Matty Stevens and Omar Bugiel took the Dons up to seventh in the table and condemned the home side to their second defeat in five days as pressure grows on Rovers manager Nigel Adkins.
Both teams had chances to take the lead early on with Kristian Dennis forcing saves from Owen Goodman in the Dons’ goal while Luke McGee denied James Ball at the other end.
But it was the visitors who eventually broke the deadlock 10 minutes before half-time when Stevens prodded home Callum Maycock’s cross from six yards.
Rovers had chances to draw level through Jordan Turnbull and Sam Finley before the points were all-but secured eight minutes after the break when Bugiel headed home James Tilley’s cross from six yards.
Jackson said: “That’s a really good win in what was a tough game tonight.
“They made it difficult for us and it wasn’t pretty all the time. We had to dig deep and find a way to win, which has not always been the way this season.
“It wasn’t vintage but we were ruthless at moments and got the goals when we needed them to get us a really good win.
“It’s important to win after the disappointment of last week and if we want to have ambitions to do something this season then every game is important.
“We knew what was at stake tonight in terms of where we are in the league, we knew we had games in hand, but we knew we had to win them.
“We’ve got ourselves in a good position and we have to build if we want to finish as high as we can, but we need to try and keep ourselves where we are and see if we can go even further.”
Adkins’ side, four points above the relegation zone, were booed off the pitch.
He said: “We’ve lost the game and where we are at this moment in time is not great.
“We all want to see us winning games of football and you can’t say we didn’t have enough opportunities and we started the game really brightly, but it just hasn’t fallen for us.
“Their keeper has made some great saves towards the end, but the reality is we haven’t won the game and that’s what it’s all about.
“In the cold light of day I will reflect on it, but I can’t hide away from it as a Tranmere supporter and as an ex-player and the current manager, we’ve lost the game.
“We could have got something out of this game easily with the amount of chances we created, but we haven’t scored and that’s been a big thing that’s happened this season, we’ve not scored enough goals.
“What we’ve got to do is learn the lessons from this one, but the fans have got to be fair as well as the lads have given everything. We’ve got to pick ourselves up and go again.”
