Chris Powell felt his Huddersfield Town side fully deserved their stroke of luck as they recorded a first Sky Bet Championship away win in four months at Wigan.
The Terrriers fully warranted the three points at the DW Stadium after creating the more clear-cut chances and seeing two first-half efforts cleared off the line.James Vaughan saw a header cleared by Liam Ridgewell, with Mark Hudson then being denied by Martyn Waghorn.
But Conor Coady ensured it was third time lucky eight minutes from time when his over-hit cross from the left wing somehow found its way over the helpless Scott Carson and into the top corner.
When asked whether Coady had meant to score, Powell paused before replying, with a huge grin on his face: "Good question...I'm just really glad he did.
"It was a cross-shot and sometimes that's what happens - they go right into the top corner.
"It was a very welcome finish, a very welcome clean sheet and a very welcome three points."
Coady's goal gave the Terriers their first away win since the victory at Wolves on 1st October - at the same time increasing Wigan's winless sequence at home which stretches back to 30th August - and opened-up an 11-point gap to the drop zone.
"It's been a long time coming," Powell added. "We've been close, but not quite close enough.
"You just need those those away points, whether it's three or just one, to help the home form.
"We just wanted to make sure we took something today because, with Brighton winning in midweek, we didn't want Wigan to reduce the gap.
"We wanted to widen it, and we managed to do that.
"We knew they were away at Ipswich next week and they would have been looking at this game as a real important game to try and take something from.
"We were maybe lucky with the goal, but I felt we gave ourselves a platform to get something from the game with the way we performed throughout."