John Caulfield toasted Cork City's "best win of the season" after they ground out their tenth victory from ten at St Pat's on Friday night.
Karl Sheppard and Garry Buckley strikes - after an own-goal broke the deadlock - put the dogged Saints away but only after an hour of nip-and-tuck football, in which both sides gave no quarter.
The Leesiders weathered that storm and now sit nine points clear of Dundalk and Bray Wanderers at the top of the table.
"I think it was our best win of the season," Caulfield told RTÉ Sport.
"I keep saying, yeah great start, but there's a long, long way to go."
"In the first half, there wasn't much in the game. Pat's controlled it. Sheppard had a great chance to score, Ryan Delaney hit the post with a header. But other than that Pat's were dominant.
"At half-time we weren't happy. The lads deserve tremendous credit the way they came out in the second half.
"From my point of view it was the biggest win for us so far this season under difficult circumstances."
Sheppard echoed his manager's sentiments as he urged his team-mates to maintain their blistering form.
"You come up to Inchicore and you always know it's going to be a tough game," the striker said.
"They're a good team on their day when they put it up to you and they certainly did that. We ground it out.
"It ended up being the toughest first half we've had this season.
"Things are going well. We just need to keep rowing in the same direction."
Next up for Cork is a Turner's Cross collision against in-form Bray.
Another win would see City's electric start hit an even higher gear, but Caulfield is taking nothing for granted.
"You just keep your feet on the ground and move on to Bray next week, which is going to be a top-of-the-table clash, which is great," he said.
"There's a great resilience, a great spirit and determination within the team. The scoreline maybe flattered us a small bit but at the same time they really didn't look like scoring. Defensively we were strong.
"I keep saying, yeah great start, but there's a long, long way to go."
