Leeds United stormed to a 3-1 win over Nottingham Forest to move nine points clear of the Premier League relegation zone on Friday night.
West Ham will hope to cut that gap when they go to Burnley on Saturday afternoon but this was a hugely significant victory for Leeds in their own relegation-battle six-pointer. It leaves fourth-bottom Forest looking over their shoulder.
A quickfire first-half double got Leeds on their way. First, Jayden Bogle sent Elland Road wild with his cool finish after Ilia Gruev's super pass over the top found his excellent run. That was his first goal of the season. And just four minutes later, Noah Okafor doubled the delight with a close-range finish for his first strike since October.
Forest had seen a series of efforts saved by Karl Darlow before those goals and needed a fast start to the second half. But instead, Dominic Calvert-Lewin - who had earlier headed against the bar - chested in his 10th Premier League goal of the season four minutes after the break to all but end the contest.
Dan Ndoye prodded over and Morato, agonisingly, couldn't nod home on the stretch as Forest tried to respond but they were fortunate Gruev didn't add a Leeds fourth from a goalmouth scramble.
Debutant Lorenzo Lucca did eventually pull one back with a towering header on 86 minutes to create some anxiety in the final stages - and Darlow had to make a good save deep into stoppage time to prevent Ibrahim Sangare from grabbing another. But Leeds were able to celebrate a crucial three points when the final whistle came.
Forest's unbeaten run of four games is over and they will now watch Burnley vs West Ham with some nervousness, given their six-point gap to the Hammers.
Leeds fans - who spent most of the night singing in the rain - can enjoy the weekend.
Leeds boss Daniel Farke to Your Site:
"There are sometimes games that are, of course, also just three points but it feels a bit more important. And whenever the pressure was on and we had to deliver, we had to live it. This is a sign of a winning mentality.
"So I'm pretty happy with this mature behaviour as well that we showed, also like in the moment when we were asked the quality to perform on this level and also to reward ourselves with a few points, a sign of winning mentality. I'm pretty, pretty proud.
"All the credit goes to my players, because they're so flexible so far during the season, and we don't have the best individual quality. It's one of our strengths that we are not predictable, and for that, many, many compliments to the players."
Dominic Calvert-Lewin to Your Site:
"When you go into any season, double figures is what you've got to aim for as a No 9 in this league. Double figures and above. It's nice to hit that milestone but I'm hungry for more. I'm striving every day to improve and keep scoring more goals.
"The faith and belief the club and the fanbase and manager have put in me has helped me a lot. I like to think I'm repaying that. I'm really enjoying my football and leading the line."
Nottingham Forest boss Sean Dyche:
"The killer for us was giving away such an awful all three goals but the first one at such an important time.
"We'd calmed everything down, we were getting back into the game. An awful goal from our point of view. A straight ball over the defence, no one likes that as a manager. Then they scored a second and you go, 'right, OK, that's not good'.
"At half-time we've got to rethink but then we concede really early [in the second half] and the third goal is awful as well.
"By the end we're trying but it's too late by then. There's no qualms about the result. They were better than us on the night."
