Avram Grant hailed Scott Parker as a shining light as he looked to regroup from Wednesday's 2-2 draw with West Bromwich Albion before Saturday's date with Blackpool.
The manager saw his midfield supremo - who has played every minute of the club's 15 league and cup games this season - kick-start a second-half revival with a sublime 25-yarder just before half-time.
"You don't see many goals like that," said Grant. "Scott deserves it for the way he works and it was an unbelievable goal. He is having a great season. He always tries to do the right thing. Scott is in great shape."
Parker's precision finish levelled the scores after Peter Odemwingie's spot-kick five minutes before and paved the way for Frederic Piquionne to join Parker on five goals this season with his penalty soon after the interval, before West Brom were able to come back into it and ensure a 2-2 draw through Pablo Ibanez.
"The players were not so patient in the first half," said Grant. "West Brom were defending with a lot of men behind the ball. We needed to be quicker and sharper. We did that in the second half.
"The reaction after they scored the first goal was good. We got to one-one, then went two-one up and had a great chance to make it three-one. Instead we conceded ourselves, so we are obviously disappointed by that."
Having seen a similar scenario play out at Birmingham City at the weekend in terms of performance and point, the manager said there would be no let-up in the search for more from Blackpool.
"I want to take points, not because anybody else wants to take them. I want to take points because I want to take points, because I think we deserve to take points. We need to get a win and we are very close to it.
"I think when the first win comes we will win more games, because we are playing football the right way."
Aside from Parker's usual superb display, another positive was Kieron Dyer's first 90 minutes in claret and blue since 25 August 2008 and only his third full match for the club, with the manager saying he did "a good job" - not least in winning that Piquionne penalty. Dyer came into the side with Valon Behrami having developed a hip problem late in training on Tuesday and Victor Obinna not fit enough to start with a muscle issue.
Carlton Cole also limped off feeling his hamstring, but it is thought the striker could be fit to face Blackpool. Whoever lines up will need to learn from the experiences so far, with the manager preferring to focus on the team's needs rather than individuals.
"We reacted well to going one-nil down and continued playing. We are not a team that can drop back and defend with eight or nine players. We continue playing and conceded a goal.
"All the time you can point the finger at someone but we prefer to win like a team and lose like a team. We will analyse the team and see what we can do better.
"We did everything we could but unfortunately we didn't do it for the supporters. It will be a similar game on Saturday. Blackpool are a good team and we need to want it more than them. The spirit is still good."