An injury-time winner from Manucho earned Hull City a 1-0 win at Fulham as their battle to avoid the drop received a shot in the arm.
With Stoke winning against Bolton, the Tigers needed to get something from their visit to Craven Cottage and turned in a brave performance to hold their hosts for 90 minutes.
Then with time almost up, substitute Manucho turned in Richard Garcia's cross to earn City a vital win.
The visitors were indebted to keeper Matt Duke who pulled off a string of fine saves to deny Clint Dempsey and Andrew Johnson, among others, to keep out the hosts.
At the other end, the away side carved out few opportunities themselves, Kamil Zayatte coming the closest when he failed to get enough on Sam Ricketts' inswinging free-kick before the on-loan striker sent the travelling supporters into dreamland.
A solitary win in their last 18 Premier League encounters had sent City into freefall but the victory has put them five points clear of the drop zone.
Tigers boss Phil Brown, who saw Ian Ashbee, Craig Fagan and Michael Turner pass fitness tests, buried the hatchet with Geovanni by including the Brazilian in his starting line-up.
Fired up, Geovanni was in the thick of the early action, firing a free-kick a hair's breadth wide of the left post.
Fulham keeper Mark Schwarzer dealt with a looping header by Daniel Cousin as the visitors continued to press.
The visitors' goal came under pressure for the first time in the 12th minute when Bobby Zamora jinked his way into a shooting position only to fire wide.
An incisive run from Geovanni cut Fulham open but Bernard Mendy's ball into the box was poor, wasting the Brazilian's good work.
Simon Davies and Paul Konchesky combined to set up a half-chance for Johnson with the little striker defying gravity to connect with the ball only for his header to sail wide.
Highlight:
Fulham v Hull
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