Scott Brown hailed his Ayr side for completing the perfect week with a statement win at Livingston.
United followed up their thrashing of Falkirk with an impressive victory in West Lothian this afternoon.
And Brown confessed his players are starting to hit top gear during the festive period as they notched a fifth win in their last six outings.
He said: “If you look at our December, it’s been a really hard month in terms of the fixtures and the one game we did lose at Partick was really unlucky considering how we played. To beat Falkirk and then come away to Livingston and win both of those games is huge for the club and gives us momentum – but it’s about staying on top of that now.
“The lads dealt with Livingston really well – they have quality throughout their starting eleven and on the bench but we were calm and collected throughout. We were a strong unit and when we had to put the boot in to win the ball we did that, especially with conditions as they were today.
“You have to stand up and be counted when the conditions are like they were and when you get that one bit of quality into the box from Jay (Henderson), it’s great to see big Geo (Oakley) on the move and taking his chance.
“We can’t let the standards drop now, whether it’s in training or in games, it’s all about maintaining these levels.”
Brown also reserved special praise for keeper Harry Strone, who came in from the cold to replace the injured Liam Russell and turned in a tremendous display with a string of huge second half saves.
Brown said: “Harry’s had a real hard time from me earlier in the season and we had Liam come in who’s fantastic with the ball at his feet and really composed. But I thought today, Harry was excellent. His composure, his kicking…he knew this was an opportunity to go and play and he’s grabbed that and that’s what you want from your goalkeeper.
“You want them to be a big personality to go and make those big saves for you and he definitely did that for us today. It was summed up at the end where the ref has played 97 minutes and Harry’s come up with a big save and moved his feet really quickly to get there.
“That comes down to our goalie coach working on things like that with him and shows the importance of the training sessions and the willingness to take those things on board. If you have that drive it will benefit the whole team and you want them to have that trust turning round to their goalie and we have that now with two fantastic goalies they both trust.”
Ayr enjoyed the better of the first half played in squally conditions and after surviving an early scare when Teti Yengi’s goal was disallowed, they went on to control much of the opening period.
Henderson almost finished a lovely move but couldn’t get enough on Paddy Reading’s knockdown to put United in front before Jamie Murphy had a deflected shot saved by Jerome Prior.
But Ayr’s pressure was building and their possession paid off when a fine cross from Henderson was met by the alert Oakley who beat Prior to the ball for a close range finish.
Livi enjoyed the bulk of the pressure after the break and Stone pulled off the first of his saves to deny Michael Nottingham at a corner. Better was to come when Stone got down low to deny Yengi with another fine save as the hosts plugged away looking for a leveller.
And as the game went deep into added time, Stone saved his best for last when producing a fingertip save to stop a long throw from deflecting past him and into the top corner to secure Ayr the points.