Southern United responded to its five-goal drubbing a week ago in the best possible way on Saturday.
It trailed 1-0 at the break, but two second-half goals gave it a 2-1 win over Canterbury United at Logan Park Turf.
That gave it a crucial three points, leaving it in touch with the playoff contenders in the national football premiership.
The win was also Southern’s first against Canterbury since January 2017.
George King gave Canterbury the lead midway through the first half, putting a well-taken free kick out of Liam Little’s reach.
Southern struggled to create opportunities, until Danny Ledwith rattled in a screamer on the hour mark.
He took a few dribbles and then shot from 30m out, hitting the bottom of the crossbar and bouncing in.
The referees deliberated over whether the ball crossed the line, before awarding the goal.
It proved a key moment.
From there, the home side took momentum and nearly managed a second a minute later when Garbhan Coughlan was put into space.
That yielded nothing, but Southern took the lead 25 minutes later.
Canterbury had gone a man down in the 80th minute when James Pendrigh was red-carded after a mistimed challenge on Coughlan.
Five minutes later, young defender Andrew Cromb scored his second goal in three weeks, finishing after a messy corner landed at his feet.
Canterbury piled pressure on through the lengthy period of added time but the Southern defence held.
Southern coach Paul O’Reilly said it was a brilliant result.
He dubbed the game a "scrappy derby" but was thrilled with the attitude of his players.
While disappointed to go down early, he admitted it had been a fantastic strike from King.
However, the response — to both that and last week’s thrashing — was what pleased him most.
"I thought our reaction to it, to stick at it and persevere, was superb," he said.
"Very much back to what’s been good about our group for a long time. Very hard to play against, very few chances given away, great resolve, brilliant passion. Hard work, organisation, passion, desire, those things will never go out of fashion.
"I don’t think people realise how hard it is to do it, but I think our players do that week after week."
While the win was important in the context of the overall league, O’Reilly was not so concerned with that.
He said he had stopped looking at the table and was focusing on each game as it came.
"It’s a win, it’s a South Island derby. If it pops us up a couple of positions, then brilliant.
"But we’ve got another game again next week that we have to try to win. Today was just about putting in a performance that we could walk away and be proud of. And I think we did that, so I’m buzzing."
The side may have to do without Coughlan for that next match, against Eastern Suburbs in Auckland.
O’Reilly said the striker was a 50/50 chance of playing.
