Nottingham Forest staged a rousing comeback to turn a 2-1 deficit against Ipswich into a 3-2 win that had the home suppporters purring as they left the stadium.
"When we got back to 2-2 it would have been easy for us to close shop but when you have more than 21,000 cheering you on, we had no option but to go on and try and win it," he said.
"That's what we did and the fans deserve credit for the way they pushed us on in the final minutes of the game. It was a team effort all round. They deserve a big thank you too."
Opposite number Paul Jewell was left fuming, saying: "Immediately after a game you always stand a chance of saying something that you will regret but certain things had to be said afterwards and I said them.
"At 2-1 we should have been able to see the game out but we were trying to do fancy things when we needed to take the sensible option and just close it out."