Ten-man Southampton capped a dramatic week with a 1-0 win at home to Portsmouth in a south coast derby on Sunday.
There had been fears among home fans that Southampton manager Tonda Eckert would miss the match as a result of his role in last season's "Spygate" scandal.
That saw the Saints kicked out of last season's Championship play-offs and docked four points in the current campaign for breaching Football League rules after being caught snooping on semi-final opponents Middlesbrough and two other teams.
But 33-year-old German boss Eckert kept his job at St Mary's despite Southampton missing out on the chance of promotion to the Premier League and on Wednesday he escaped a major punishment after the Football Association announced a suspended ban.
Eckert was fined £28,000 ($37,000) and given a reprimand but avoided a lengthy suspension and was left free to continue in his role at Southampton.
Neither Saints nor Pompey had won a south coast derby in the league since 2005 but James Bree fired the hosts ahead in the 20th minute following a fine pass from Finn Azaz.
Southampton, however, had to play more than half the match a man down after homegrown midfielder Cameron Bragg was sent off shortly before the interval following two bookable offences.
Pompey made life uncomfortable but were undone by a lack of quality in the final third of the pitch as Saints held on for victory.
"It means everything," Eckert told Sky Sports. "We had to dig deep, probably a lot deeper than we thought before the game and credit to the boys because they deserved that."
Turning to the red card, he added: "You know how much it means to him (Bragg).
"At the end, I said to him he gave us a game we would not have had any other way, so we'll probably look back at the end of the season and say this is the game that gave us a big push and he was a part of that. In a different way than he wanted, but it happens. It will be a learning for him."
Victory left Southampton 11th in the table and Portsmouth in 19th place -- just a point above the relegation zone -- with Pompey boss John Mousinho lamenting his side's failure to take their chances.
"When you come away from games and you're well beaten, it's easier to take in some ways," he said. "Today, it was a different game after the red card, but for the amount of pressure we had in the second half, the amount of opportunities we had, to not put the ball in the back of the net...we're devastated."
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