At times this season, Swansea City have played better than they did during Wednesday’s 2-1 victory at Derby County and come away with nothing.
The opening quarter aside, Swansea were well short of their best at Pride Park.
But after successive last-gasp defeats, at Burnley and then at home to Leeds United last Sunday, the result was what counted most against the Rams.
Not since the early weeks of Williams’ reign have Swansea suffered three successive defeats.
They avoided an unwelcome hat-trick thanks largely to a clinical opening spell at Derby, where Zan Vipotnik and Ronald produced finishes which reflected Swansea’s sharp start.
Williams’ team spent the last hour of the contest looking to fend off their hosts, which they managed, just, despite Nathaniel Mendez-Laing’s second-half penalty.
Williams felt Swansea’s battling performance proved they remain in upbeat mood, despite the agony of losing to Leeds having led twice and made it 3-3 in the closing minutes of that game only to be beaten by a stoppage-time Wilfried Gnonto goal.
When asked about Swansea’s response to the Leeds reverse, Williams said: “The most important thing is they performed really well on Sunday.
“They should be pleased with the performance even though we were devastated with the result, particularly the way it happened when we had just equalised in the dying moments against the best team in the league.
“But I think it showed that the players didn’t suffer a lack of confidence because they came to Derby and started the game in a brilliant fashion and we got the result, so we are very happy.”