Saint-Etienne manager Christophe Galtier is certain that his side deserved their win over Nice on Sunday afternoon.
Mevlut Erding capitalised on a mistake by Lucas Veronese in the first half to help Les Verts to a 1-0 victory at the Allianz Riviera.
"Our victory is not undeserved," Galtier told reporters. "The playing conditions were not easy. It's a shame to be in such a beautiful stadium and play such a mediocre game, but it was difficult with the conditions to play without making mistakes.
"We had the most clear-cut chances, we were not as clinical as we could have been but at least the effort was there, and we defended intelligently. A few teams dropped points this weekend and this allowed us to make up a lot of ground on a lot of teams.
"It was not a great game but this result means we climb into the top half of the table."
Saint-Etienne host Reims in their next Ligue 1 match on Saturday.
Matt Cotton
