When the goals were flying in at a record rate for Derby County at Bristol City last month, the normally poker-faced John Eustace couldn't contain his smile.
The pearly whites on display pitchside at Ashton Gate during the 5-0 win betrayed the "emotion-free" public persona the 46-year-old has curated in a year during which he has transformed the Rams from relegation battlers to promotion contenders.
"It was a fantastic win. We've gone to a top team and won so I'm not going to be grumpy about that," Eustace told BBC Sport about the shot of emotion he afforded himself that late January night.
The most obvious time Eustace allowed himself a euphoric outburst before that was on the pitch at Pride Park on the final day last season after a goalless draw with Stoke City ensured Championship survival.
It was a crucial point with club-defining purpose as the Rams avoided an immediate return to League One.
Victory against Bristol City - what was the club's biggest ever Championship win on the road - and the grin that accompanied it gave the clearest indication of what Eustace is trying to achieve at Derby.
Pragmatic football, finding substance in results rather than style in approach, has largely defined the 12 months Eustace has been in charge.
While Derby have scored in 21 successive matches - the longest ongoing streak of any side currently in England's top-four tiers - they have won just three of their 12 league games this season by more than a solitary goal.
But the former Derby midfielder - who in 2014, as a player under then England boss Steve McClaren, helped get the Rams to within a Wembley win of Premier League promotion - is not shy about admitting he wants more.
This from a head coach whose managerial career started more than a decade ago at Kidderminster, where one rival coach said Eustace had the Harriers playing like "non-league Barcelona", external.
With that in mind, was the five-goal dismantling of Bristol City that briefly had Derby in the play-off places a telling glimpse of what Eustace wants from his side?
"I just want to win," Eustace started in his typical matter-of-fact way.
But grinning, he quickly added: "You want to win with style and you want to win with passion, of course you do.
"And there's a certain way I want to play.
"When we lost in the play-offs [in 2014] and the season after, I thought we were a top-performing team. We could mix it up, we could play football, we were exciting on the transitions, we could build, we could be a possession-based team as well. We had great wingers, who were exciting, so that's something that I'd like this team to eventually be like.
"But if you don't win, you don't get that time to do it. So it's important that we just find a way to keep progressing at the football club."
It is not lost on Eustace that his year in the job makes him the 10th longest-serving boss in the division - with 14 clubs in the Championship having fired and hired within that time, racking up a total of 21 permanent managerial changes.
