Steve Morison hailed his Sutton players after they fired themselves out of the League Two relegation zone for the first time in 2024 with a 3-1 victory over Swindon.
A Jack Bycroft own-goal was sandwiched between strikes from Charlie Lakin and Harry Smith at Gander Green Lane.
Paul Glatzel’s stoppage-time free-kick was the one bright spark of an otherwise poor afternoon for Swindon.
Morison’s side made it four wins on the spin as they went a point clear in the relegation dogfight, although Colchester below them have three games in hand.
“It was a really good performance and I’m really pleased with the way the players played,” said Morison. “They got the result they deserved and we live to fight another day.
“It was an excellent performance, excellent goals. The disappointment is not getting a clean sheet and we probably should have scored a few more.
“I told them at half-time that it would be an absolute disgrace if we didn’t come away from this game with all three points because we were by far the superior team.
“We keep grinding, we keep working and on to the next one.
“We’ve started getting the results the last four games, but we know there’s still a hell of a long way to go.
“Being out of the relegation zone is certainly better than being at the bottom. Emotionally, it will be good to look at the table and see us not in there.
“We’ll keep focusing on our performances and we can only control our destiny by trying to win as many matches as we can.”
The Robins slumped to a fourth defeat in five and boss Gavin Gunning said: “When you come to Sutton you know what you’re going to get, you know their style.
“We didn’t deal with it at all. We didn’t have that appetite that it takes to get a result here.
“Listen, they’re on a good run. But we’ve worked on it. You know the ball’s coming, it’s going to come down the channels. It’s going to be relentless.
“We didn’t stand up to it, it’s really disappointing.
“We need experience in the team, you can see it there. That’s what we needed. I’ve been there myself where you get your head on everything, you get a broken nose, you get yourself in the way.
“League Two, to be successful, requires the spine to be experienced and solid. That’s how you do well at this level.
“When you come to Sutton it’s not tactical, it’s about whether you’ve got a big heart, have you got what it takes to stay in the battle? Balls are always on top of you and we lacked that. It’s very disappointing.”