Ian Murray reckons a fifth win on the spin for his "remarkable" Diamonds has made them real challengers for the League One title.
Airdrie climbed to second spot after a deserved victory over Falkirk and moved within eight points of leaders Cove Rangers with a game in hand.
A strike from skipper Callum Fordyce and a composed finish from Hearts loanee Scott McGill, rounding off a terrific move, had the Diamonds in command after an outstanding opening 45 minutes.
The Bairns pulled one back through Brad McKay's header after 47 minutes before Airdrie sub Calum Gallagher poked the ball in for 3-1 with four minutes remaining.
Anton Dowds turned home a corner in the 89th minute to make for a nervy finish, but the hosts held out for the victory.
And Murray beamed: "I'm really proud of the players. I thought they were excellent.
"It's a fantastic result for us.
"We had to really follow up our recent successes with another good result and we've done that.
"The players maybe made it a bit tighter towards the end than they should have done, but they've been remarkable the last few weeks and pretty much all season.
"We are running out of superlatives for them at the moment.
"I said to the players if we'd been offered five wins and 15 points out of 15 a few weeks ago, scoring three goals in three games out of four and keeping clean sheets in there as well, we'd have been delighted.
"We've put ourselves in a position now where we are challenging for the league title.
"I think that's fair to say.
"We can't do anything about Cove, we just have to keeping winning games and see where it takes us.
"Today was all about results. We've kept our momentum going and we've given ourselves a chance."
Murray was returning to the dugout after missing last week's 3-0 win over East Fife due to a positive Covid case.
Again, the club couldn't fill their bench with players missing.
And Murray added: "I think the players deserve a lot of credit for the way they kept going, down to the bare bones.
"Every player has just dug in deep for the club..
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