Tony Pulis hailed Sheffield Wednesday's character after his side beat Coventry 1-0 to finally secure his first win as boss.
Tom Lees struck in the second half to lift the Owls off the bottom of the Championship, four points from safety.
The win ended an eight-game winless run since Pulis replaced the sacked Garry Monk at Hillsborough.
Pulis said: "The win was a long time coming. We showed a lot of resilience today and we needed the three points.
"We were missing quite a few players, but the players who stepped in played their part. They're a good group of lads.
"I am very pleased for this football club and for the supporters. We need to get results and we need clean sheets to get those results.
"The boys gave so much effort and commitment today. It's a great result for us. We have to make Hillsborough more of a fortress when other teams come here to play.
"You have to give Coventry a lot of credit today. Their keeper made a couple of good saves and Josh Windass should have really had a hat-trick.
"Things are looking up. I haven't had one week of training so far. We'll be doing plenty of work on keeping clean sheets and being dangerous on the break in the coming weeks and months.
"Fingers crossed that we can take confidence from this win to Blackburn on Boxing Day."
Coventry manager Mark Robins was proud of his side despite seeing their eight-match unbeaten run end.
He said: "It's been a really difficult day. We are disappointed, but certainly not with what we've done over the past nine games.
"We didn't do enough this afternoon and we weren't ruthless enough in front of goal. We created decent opportunities and we had the ball in decent areas, but we didn't make the most of it.
"I'm not going to make any excuses, but the pitch was horrific. The pitch meant that we couldn't get any momentum.
"Sheffield Wednesday were fighting and hadn't won since Tony came in. It's a disappointment for us because we couldn't keep our run going.
"We showed a lot of intent to try and score a goal, but that was difficult because of the pitch.
"No heads should be hanging. The lads did fantastically well and gave me everything that they had.
"Energy-wise, I thought we were not too bad either. We have to move on from today really quickly."
