Cardiff manager Mick McCarthy hailed the development of Kieffer Moore after the Wales striker inspired his side to a 3-1 victory over Coventry.
The former Ipswich boss signed the 6ft 5in forward for just £20,000 four years ago but has watched him develop into one of the Sky Bet Championship's most prolific goalscorers.
Moore made it five goals in his last five games to help his side move to within one place and six points of the play-off places.
He opened the scoring in the 31st minute after a left-foot dummy sold Leo Ostigard and set him up to finish with his right.
Moore's 13th goal of the season came eight minutes after his 12th when he capitalised on a missed punch from goalkeeper Marko Marosi to score from five yards out.
Josh Murphy then sealed victory after being played through by a quickly taken free-kick from Perry Ng, before Dom Hyam scored a late consolation.
"Kieffer is getting his goals and he's mixing it up," said McCarthy. "He was pretty raw when I took a chance on him for £20,000.
"He's bought into everything with everyone who has tried to help him and he's just progressed so much.
"Kieffer gets really well marked by teams but he surprises a lot of people. He's made himself a much more rounded player since I picked him up from Forest Green.
"Josh Murphy has real quality too. I am delighted for him. I am always pleased to get the best out of players.
"I am glad we are talking about the play-offs now rather than saying we had a poor performance and are near the relegation zone.
"We can't start getting carried away. Let's see where we end up. If we keep winning games and picking up points we will do all right.
"But after the week we've had and the travel, it's a particularly good result."
Coventry will slip into the relegation zone if Rotherham win either of their two games in hand, and manager Mark Robins was disappointed with his side's performance.
"I thought it was the poorest performance of the season," he said. "We didn't show our ability to fight against a team that fights.
"We've allowed them and the referee's allowed them to kick Callum O'Hare off the pitch, and we only reacted with 15 minutes to go and that's not good enough.
"The chances they had and the goals they scored were given to them by us and you can't do that and expect to win games or even draw them.
"There's too many non-performers, it's very disappointing.
At 2-0 there is always a way back into the game. We missed chances but we didn't create enough, we just huffed and puffed.
"It wasn't good enough today; I'll stick up for everybody but there needs to be more scrapping from minute one to earn the right to play.
"We have to fight and scrap and create chances, but it was just too easy for them today and that's something I'm absolutely angry about."
