Four goals on the road for Orlando Pirates in Port Elizabeth on Sunday has catapulted the club into second place in South Africa's Premier Soccer League standings and boosted the chances of the title race developing into a thrilling finale.
Mamelodi Sundowns are still four points clear but several of the other contenders -- like Cape Town City, Free State Stars and Kaizer Chiefs -- failed to keep up, threatening to allow Sundowns to build up a lead that could quickly become unassailable and render the contest a done deal.
Pirates had to come from behind to win 4-2 against Chippa United at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in a fighting performance that will greatly boost their morale, and coach Milutin Sredojevic was delighted afterwards, as he told the post-match press conference.
"We set out to play 4-4-2 in a diamond formation but once we conceded that goal [to Mxolisi Machupu in the 18th minute], we immediately changed, and we answered by equalising.
"At half-time we regrouped with emphasis on the areas of vulnerability on our side. We looked to improve our build-up by moving the ball faster and to expose certain weaknesses in our opponent. We are very happy we succeeded.
"We should have scored before we got the second goal [from Zambia import Justin Shonga]. However, we conceded again from the top of our attack, but we again showed character, as we needed to do, by scoring two more goals."
It was 1-1 until Shonga scored with some 10 minutes to go, only for veteran Katlego Mashego to sweep the ball home with his first touch after coming on as a substitute for Chippa to make it 2-2.
"It was thrilling match against a very good, competitive team who were not easy to play again. They were very important points for us," added Pirates' Serbian coach.
"I want to give absolute credit to the players for sticking to the deepest details. We knew everything that the opponent would do. Things we planned for, worked in our favour. There was great character shown.
"I also want to give my sincere appreciation to [our] supporters because football is played because of them. We are on a mission to heal the souls of our supporters from last season.
"Our tally of points for last season was 33, now we have already reached 36. We are extremely happy with that. We are still a work in progress with a mission to improve in so many areas of the game."
His first job now, added Sredojevic, was to fix mistakes committed in Port Elizabeth for the derby against Kaizer Chiefs in Soweto on Saturday.