Graham Potter admitted Swansea City were able to do no more than “dig in” against a Leeds United team that threatened to bury them.
The Swans eventually lost 2-1 at Elland Road on Wednesday night, a lucky escape in some regards given how dominant the home team were.
Swans manager Potter praised his team for their resolve, but the defeat now leaves them seven points adrift of the play-of places, which will rise to 10 points if those clubs win their game in hand.
“Leeds have got as good a chance of getting promoted as anybody from what I’ve seen,” said Potter.
“That’s as tough a test as we’ve had this season. Leeds are a good team and played well.
“But you saw the character of our players not to go under because you can quite easily go under here. They didn’t and stayed in the game.
“That’s a learning point for them as they go forward. You can’t just dominate games and play nice football at these places.
“You’ve got to survive and dig in. We did that to enable us to at least make a fight of it in the end.”
The victory meant Leeds returned to the top of the Championship table as they took advantage of Norwich’s defeat at Preston.
The clash had an edge after Swansea pulled the plug on Daniel James’ move to Leeds late on deadline day and United channelled that frustration to make it 10 straight home wins.
James, who had completed a medical and was waiting at Elland Road for the deal to be rubber-stamped, started the game and showed glimpses of why Leeds were so keen to sign him.
But the winger and his team-mates were left with an improbable task at half-time after goals from birthday boy Pontus Jansson and Jack Harrison had put Leeds in control.
United had gone on to win all 13 league games in which they had scored the opening goal this season and that record was never truly under threat despite a period of panic after Oli McBurnie’s late penalty.
James was withdrawn with little over 20 minutes to go and watched substitute McBurnie set up a nervy finish from the spot after Luke Ayling had brought down Joel Asoro.
Panic came into Leeds’ play in the remaining three minutes plus stoppage time but Marcelo Bielsa’s side held on for a vital victory.
Bielsa said: “I think we deserved to win. It’s hard to understand why we only won by one goal because we dominated the game and had many chances to score.
“When we win the game we can wait for the next game with serenity.
“We would like to dedicate this win to Jack Clarke because each of us feels he deserves this win. We hope he will recover well and will let him take all the time he needs to recover.”