Bristol City boss Dean Holden described Famara Diedhiou's form during lengthy negotiations over a new contract as "an absolute credit to him" after the 2-1 win over Huddersfield.
The big striker made it seven goals in his last 10 appearances with a first-half double, producing clinical finishes with only goalkeeper Ryan Schofield to beat on 22 and 26 minutes.
Juninho Bacuna brought Huddersfield back in the game with a close range finish just before the hour mark – and he was denied a late equaliser by a brilliant Dan Bentley save.
The visitors dominated the second half but could not find an equaliser, leaving Diedhiou – who is out of contract at the end of the season – as clear choice for man of the match.
Holden said: "I have made it clear that I want to keep Famara at the club and nothing has changed in that respect.
"His form while talks have been ongoing is an absolute credit to him. There is still no firm news but I will do all I can to try and ensure he goes nowhere.
"The whole team showed fantastic character tonight. The players had to put bodies on the line, particularly in the second half, and it ended up being a great result for us.
"The aim is to keep in touch with the top six, something we have done despite a long injury list, and we now face a tough trip to Derby.
"They are in a false position in my view and we know we will need to play well. We will look at why we came under pressure tonight and hopefully learn from it."
Huddersfield hit the crossbar and the post in a hugely positive second half performance, which should have yielded at least a point.
But head coach Carlos Corberan admitted: "It is very difficult to win football matches if you concede two goals through poor defending, as we did in the first half.
"In the end we had many chances to add to our one goal but the game became unbalanced through the ones we gave away.
"We always aim to create chances ourselves and limit the opposition's efforts at our goal. The second half performance was just what we wanted.
"But as always we will carefully analyse why we lost the game and look to improve.
"I felt we only attacked well down the left in the first half and were much more balanced in the second.
"We need to defend better if we are to be competitive. Once we started dealing with the runs of their number nine, we looked much better.
"Our start to games needs to improve and (we) have to work the same for every one of the 90 minutes."
