Chris Aitken hailed his injury-ravaged East Kilbride side for rising to the challenge to beat Bo'ness United.
Kilby were only able to muster three outfield substitutes, all from their development squad, and had Steven Saunders, Joao Victoria and Gregg Wylde pull out of the squad ahead of kick-off.
Aitken also had to ask a number of players to play out of position with a host of key players missing.
However, Craig Malcolm's early effort was enough to earn EK their first win of the season after a ropey start to the campaign had them sitting in 16th place before the match.
Aitken, who is expected to be handed the manager's job on a permanent basis after his brother Stevie quit earlier in the week, said: "The win was the most important thing today.
"I came in at 1pm and found out there's another couple of players injured and you think, oh here we go again.
"I went from having my team sorted to having guys straight out of it.
"Before the game I told them that sometimes when everything is going against you, you need to stand up and be counted.
"But, to a man, we did that today and that's the most pleasing thing for me.
"I had to put kids on at the end again - and for their development that's good - but it was important we got that win on the board and now we have it, I need to go and check the walking wounded for Wednesday."
The win set Kilby up for the trip to rock bottom Vale of Leithen in midweek, but it also delivered their first clean sheet this term.
And Aitken added: "I played Anton Brady at right back.
"He's probably got a wooden right foot but he went in there and did a job for me.
"I asked Jamie Stevenson to play at centre-half - a position he's probably never played - and I asked the young boy [Ciaran] McAninch to play left-back.
"When you are putting square pegs in rounds holes it's hard, so it's a credit to them to get that clean sheet - and it's well-deserved."
Follow Lanarkshire Live Sport on Twitter via @LanLiveSport, like us on Facebook or find us on Instagram for the latest sports news, pictures and video.
