Veteran South Sydney coach John Lang has rated his side's miraculous 26-24 come-from-behind victory over North Queensland among the 'gutsiest' performances he has ever seen.
Having lost Greg Inglis (concussion) on the morning of the game and Nathan Merritt (thigh) in the final minute of the warm up, the Bunnies battled bravely but looked boiled when they trailed by 12 points with nine minutes remaining.
Star half-back Chris Sandow had other ideas, however, setting up James Roberts' 71st-minute score before producing an intercept and 80m run to set up Chris McQueen's try three minutes from the siren.
With his side's finals hopes resting on his shoulders, the exhausted No.7 staggered to the opposite side of the field and calmly slotted the sideline conversion in the rain to force golden point.
And after a near miss when Cowboys full-back Matt Bowen's attempted field goal hit the upright, Sandow kicked the winning penalty goal in the 84th minute after James Segeyaro was pinged for a high shot on Issac Luke.
"I've been in the game a long time and with our season on the line, or potentially on the line, and to be down like that ... for sure that's one of the gutsiest wins I've been associated with," Lang enthused.
"We had plenty of excuses if we wanted to look for them, GI being out, Nathan dropping out at the last moment, falling behind like that, Sutto (John Sutton) going off injured and then coming back on."
"If the boys had have dropped their bundle at all we were gone, and I think it's a great tribute to their team spirit that they came back and won the game."
Asked his thoughts as Sandow lined up his sideline conversion to level the scores in the 80th minute, Lang replied: "I thought he'd kick it because it's amazing the number of them that he kicks ... but I wouldn't have put my house on it I might add."
"I was quietly confident that he'd kick it."
Sandow revealed he was more nervous lining up the match-winning kick from directly in front than his sideline effort.
"I think the one from in front because I did a lot of practice during the week from the sideline and it paid off tonight, but I was still nervous as hell as I think everyone would have been from the sideline at that time of the game," Sandow said.
Meanwhile, Lang concedes Merritt, who scored eight tries in his previous two outings against the Eels and Raiders, will almost certainly miss next Sunday's clash against the Broncos in Brisbane.
"Somebody put up a spiral bomb in the warm up and it dipped away from him at the last moment and he darted for it and felt something in his thigh," Lang explained.
"He tried to run and in the end he said he didn't think he'd be able to play ... he'd have to be in doubt next week for sure, we'll just see how he pulls up."
"Hopefully (he'll only miss one game) but we don't want to bring him back to early and then have him re-injure it ... he might even be right next week, I don't think so though."
He added that Inglis 'should be right for next week' but is not so certain on Sutton who will have scans on his suspected broken hand on Saturday.