Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce admitted he was ready to settle for a draw before David Dunn's late penalty sealed three points over Aston Villa at Ewood Park.
Dunn's winner capped a stirring comeback from Rovers, who had fallen behind to Gabriel Agbonlahor's third-minute strike then saw Vince Grella sent off for two bookable offences.
Allardyce said: "I would have been happy with a draw but I'm glad to say my players weren't. They started attacking and we got what we deserved."
He added: "I'm delighted at the way we kicked on after going an early goal behind from such a sloppy piece of defending. But it only knocked us back for a bit. We came storming back and Morten Gamst Pedersen had a good chance and we got our well-deserved equaliser.
"You rarely come back from behind to beat a top four or five team and we have done it in the last half hour and with 10 men.
"It's a day I'll remember for a long time. It's a great day. Days like this are what I do this job for."
Allardyce singled out Dunn as the driving force behind his side's second-half revival, adding: "Dunny was outstanding. I think he would have scored in the first half if Brad Friedel hadn't pulled off a world-class save."
Allardyce added that he had no complaints over Grella's red card and even had rare words of praise for referee Mark Clattenburg, adding: "I've got no complaints, they were clearly two bookable offences, the referee got the big decisions right."
Villa boss Martin O'Neill was disappointed at his side's failure to build on Agbonlahor's goal and ultimately see their 100% away league record go up in smoke.
O'Neill said: "I'm naturally disappointed to lose all three points. We got off to a great start and I thought even at 1-1 at half-time we would go on to win. Maybe we didn't create as many clear-cut chances in the second half but I thought we were worthy of a point but it's never easy here."
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At the end of the day, its the points that matters and Blackburn deserved the 3 points after the win - regardless of how it was won. As a Villa fan, can't say I'm personally too please with the defence or the referee... allowing them the opportunity to get the penalty in the first place, but anyhow, Blackburn won, congrats and Villa should go back to the drawing board and look themselves in the mirror for allowing the lost, and dissapointing the fans in a game against a team we should have no problem beating in the first place...
too many pats on the backs too early in the season for lazy villa villa brings defeat, always been a problem at villa, pats on backs should be given after trophies are won, soft management
Well done Rovers I'm glad I goaded you to produce, its not before time .Now go on and put a run together,lets put some points in the kitty,and most of all start scoring enough goals to improve our goal difference.
Well done to sam and the team showed some spirit and fight just whats needed at this time, but!!! time to take a serious look at the old guard and sort it out in the january sales some of the players just not up too it??
Q.whats happened to our 6 million pound striker??
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