AYR United are "starting to look up" after climbing back into the Scottish Championship play-off places.
The Honest Men reclaimed fourth spot on Saturday with a 2-1 home win against Raith Rovers - coupled with Dunfermline Athletic's 2-0 loss to Airdrieonians.
Scott Brown's side took control of the fixture in the first half with Ben Dempsey's free kick finding its way in at the back post just before the half-hour mark to put Ayr ahead.
Anton Dowds doubled that lead early in the second half to put United in a comfortable position before Lewis Vaughan halved the deficit heading into the final 15 minutes.
However, the Ayr rear-guard held strong to ensure all three points remained at Somerset Park.
“We had to, to a man, put the work in for 90 minutes," assistant boss Steven Whittaker said.
"We’ve been slack at times within performances in the last few weeks, which has cost us. We asked the boys to focus, put the work in, dig out each other and we could get the result.
“That was a hard-working performance that got us there. We would have liked to have been a little bit more fluent in our play.
“Sometimes the game throws up what it throws up and I think the boys handled it and battled away really well.”
Whittaker is now targeting a further rise up the table after Ayr overtook Dunfermline at the weekend and put further ground between themselves and Raith.
United are currently three clear of the Pars, who do have a game in hand, and just five behind Arbroath in third, having played one match fewer.
The Somerset assistant added: “Raith Rovers were right on our heels, a point behind, they could take over us with a win.
“On the flip side, we could go four clear with a game in hand, not knowing the other results at that point.
“It was important that we started looking ahead, looking to take over Dunfermline but also looking at Arbroath and the points we would need to make up.
“We go to Arbroath soon as well, it’s another big game that we can start to look ahead of us rather than behind.”
Next up for Ayr is their re-arranged Challenge Cup quarter-final away to St Johnstone on Saturday, February 7.
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