Ian Campbell insists he never doubted Arbroath would produce a big result as they got off the mark with a 3-0 win over Morton.
Lichties moved off the foot of the Championship with a Michael McKenna penalty, an Iain Wilson own goal and a late Joao Balde effort.
That extended their unbeaten run against Morton to a remarkable 13 games – a record that stretches back to January 2020.
Arbroath have been written off by many as relegation certs after losing the first three games of the season.
But Campbell insists the belief has always been in the dressing room.
“If you were scoring the players you’d say they won all their individual battles,” said Campbell.
“It’s been a poor start to the season and you tend to look at what we’ve done wrong.
“But make no mistake, we’ve got good players. We see it all the time in training and it came to the fore in the game today.
“We were excellent – well organised and we had a lot of good territorial possession.
“They threw the kitchen sink at us but we coped with it all.
+𝟑 𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐬 😄#ArbroathFCLive #MonTheLichties pic.twitter.com/Y3xORC09ti
— Arbroath FC (@ArbroathFC) August 26, 2023
“That gives us a bit of confidence against a Morton side who never make it easy.
“It’s an incredible record we have against them but winning against them is far from easy.
“You have to work bloody hard to win these games and hopefully that can help us kick on.
“It’s a major challenge for us every year to stay in the league and improve.
“We get great backing from the board and the fans but we know what we’re doing.”
Ian Campbell offers Arbroath injury update
Meanwhile, Campbell is hopeful that injuries to Jay Bird and David Gold aren’t serious.
The pair both came off after heavy challenges with Bird limping over to the fans at full-time as he celebrated.
But Campbell added: “Gold has a dead leg and while Bird as a small injury we don’t think it is serious.”
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