Sheffield United manager Kevin Blackwell believes James Beattie can fire the Blades into the Premier League after watching the £4million man grab a second-half brace to sink Plymouth at Bramall Lane.
United endured a frustrating first half as they piled up chances without scoring, but Beattie changed all that in the second half.
First he lashed home a 48th-minute penalty after being brought down in the area, and eight minutes later he got his second with a powerful free-kick from just outside the area.
"We are hoping Beattie's goals will be the difference in getting us promoted, and that's why that club has gambled in that department," Blackwell said.
"We're fortunate to have him. He's a great team player, he's a great lad in the dressing room, the players love him to bits and the staff love working with him and long may that continue."
United certainly needed to find some top-quality finishing after wasting a string of chances in the first half, and Blackwell acknowledged the importance of having someone who could convert.
"I could have been coming in and having a cigar at half-time but as it was I would have been chewing it instead of smoking it," he said.
"But there's no doubt that when the lads find their scoring boots we're going to give someone a hiding."
The secret of United's recent success has been at the other end where they have now kept four consecutive clean sheets.
"We've talked about it from day one, having clean sheets," he said. "If you can have a clean sheet and a solid base you can win games 1-0."
It was Plymouth's second trip to Sheffield in the space of a week following their 1-0 victory over Wednesday on Tuesday night.
Paul Sturrock admitted he would have taken three points from the two games in advance, but was still left disappointed by this defeat.
"I'm very disappointed because I pre-warned my players about giving away too many set pieces in silly places," he said.
Of the penalty decision he added: "It looked a wee bit soft. I couldn't really see it but it happens all the time that people run into each other. Some refs give it, some don't, he did today and it changed the complexion of the game."
Having made the trip by road earlier in the week, Plymouth had flown north for this fixture, but the fatigue still showed and Sturrock is looking forward to a more normal routine after a couple of weeks of midweek games.
"We've had an awful run of five games in 15 days, so we're quite glad that it's all over and we can get back to Saturday," he said.
"The points total away from home is very acceptable for us but the games we've been losing at home is the disappointment for me so we're going to have to come up with something weird and wonderful in the work we do in the next few days to see if we can start to make it very difficult for teams."