Relieved Gloucester coach Bryan Redpath praised his players - and lady luck - after they recorded their first home Guinness Premiership victory since beating Bath on September 6 and ending the Leicester Tigers' three-match winning streak at Kingsholm.
Two penalties and two drop goals from young fly-half Freddie Burns against three Jeremy Staunton penalties sealed the 12-9 win that lifts Gloucester into seventh place overnight.
However, Leicester had a golden chance to steal a win they hardly deserved, given the second-half battering the home side handed their line, when Australian Lote Tuqiri knocked the ball with the try-line wide open in the final move of the match.
Redpath said: "We needed a little bit of fortune at the end, with a missed penalty and the knock-on. But we created opportunities but didn't finish them off.
"I have never faulted the players' efforts over the last five or six weeks and sometimes we may be boring to watch but you have to be in the right areas to be in these games and work hard to create pressure.
"And, in the second half, we had huge amounts of pressure and possession. I cannot question the boys' efforts and tonight we got a bit of reward. To see their faces, it shows we are a tight unit.
"There were a lot of people who were, quite rightly so, criticising and having their say but I think it takes a lot of mental courage from the players to come through it."
Gloucester had 16 players out injured or on international duty before the match, and lost a 17th - full-back Olly Morgan - three minutes before kick-off.
But Redpath said his side would not rest on their laurels next week as they prepare to face Harlequins at The Stoop.
"If we don't back this win up now, I would be hugely disappointed," added Redpath.
"We have to push on from that. This has to set a foundation. We cannot think we have cracked it - we have cracked nothing. We have won one game."
It was a bad end to a bad day for Leicester coach Richard Cockerill, who had nothing to say about the RFU disciplinary hearing he faces next Wednesday on verbal abuse of a match official in the LV Cup game with Newport Gwent Dragons last Saturday.
Cockerill said of the loss: "We tried to play too much in the first half and, in the second-half, when we got the ball, we kicked poorly and they came back at us.
"They camped in our half for the whole of the second period and we defended exceptionally well to keep them out.
"But we were not smart enough and that cost us.
"We will take the bonus point but we should have won. We thought we had a good chance to win, and rightly so, but they played well in the right areas. It was hard for us to get a rhythm."
Cockerill, though, did not think it would have been harsh if Tuqiri had scored that last-gasp winner.
"Every time we got in their half, we looked like we would score points. We put them under pressure and they gave penalties away but you play for 80 minutes and you look at the score at the end of it."
Meanwhile, Worcester coach Mike Ruddock professed himself satisfied with a 12-12 home draw with Bath.
A late penalty from Willie Walker gave the home side a deserved share of the points in their Guinness Premiership match.
It was a fair result in a hard but uninspiring game. Bath were the more enterprising side, creating more try scoring opportunities, but Worcester would have won but for vital errors at crucial times.
Ruddock said: "If it were a boxing match I think we would probably have won on points.
"They were hard to break down and sharp on the break."
Danny Grewcock came close to scoring for the more creative Bath with Ruddock saying: "It was a fantastic try-saving tackle by Miles Benjamin and Sam Tuitupou and showed our tremendous spirit.
Tuitupou was yellow-carded after 66 minutes for a high tackle but it didn't prove crucial - though Ruddock felt it was harsh.
"I can't understand why he was yellow carded and if he was so should their player for a late challenge on Pat Sanderson when he chipped ahead."
Worcester rarely looking like breaking down Bath, with Ruddock admitting: "We couldn't find the killer blow to put them away.
"We had a couple of purple patches but we didn't take advantage. Willie Walker hit the post with a penalty and then was narrowly wide with a drop goal but we had to be more clinical."
His Bath counterpart, Steve Meehan, said: "We had a couple of chances with six minutes to go.
"We should have drilled it into the corners and then we would have had the chance to win it. However without looking at the stats it appeared to me that we spent a lot of time in our half under pressure.
"We could do with a bit more creativity and we will have to work on that."
Worcester lock Craig Gillies was man of the match and Meehan conceded: "The Worcester line-out gave us a difficult time both in attack and defence but I thought we shaded it in the scrum."
Bath were without eleven players with Meehan providing an injury update.
"Olly Barkley said be fit to play next week but Butch James will not be ready until January," he said.
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