Kevin Deeney says Irvine Meadow had to box clever to get the better of Glasgow heavyweights Pollok.
Callum Graham's early strike left 'Lok reeling at Newlandsfield before Bryan Wharton landed the knockout blow with a second half header.
The hosts stayed on the front foot for most of the West of Scotland League Premier Division contest but their powder puff attacks failed to get through Meadow's disciplined rearguard action.
And Medda No 2 Deeney - standing in for gaffer George Grierson who is recuperating after a hip operation - admitted his side's tactics were straight out of ring king Mohammad Ali's playbook.
He told Ayrshire Football News: "We scored with a nothing chance but once we went a goal up we thought, you know what, we're going to squeeze the life out of them.
"They had one decent chance with a header which was offside anyway but Louis Kerr had one cleared off the line for us and I thought, 'we can rope-a-dope them'.
"At half-time it was a case of just let them have the ball if they're not going to hurt us. It kinda worked the way we'd hoped."
Meadow broke the deadlock with just six minutes on the clock - albeit against the run of play.
Connor Boyd's headed flick-on sent Graham in behind the Pollok backline and the striker's first-time shot squirmed under goalkeeper Jordan Longmuir and trickled towards goal.
Everything then seemed to go in slow motion as Longmuir lunged at the ball, succeeding only in flicking it back up into Graham's path who used his thigh to net from point blank range.
Pollok responded by keeping Meadow largely camped in their own half but for all their possession they only troubled goalkeeper Marc Waters once before half-time.
Robbie Buchanan's curling strike from the edge of the penalty area looked destined for the bottom corner but Waters got down well to bat the ball to safety.
Meadow would have been expecting the hosts to up the ante in the second half but that simply never really materialised.
Substitute Chris Duff had an early chance from a corner kick but couldn't steer his header on target.
At the other end, Kerr served a timely reminder of the Meadow's threat by fizzing a 30 yard strike narrowly past the post.
Kerr would turn provider in 53 minutes when his free-kick near the corner flag was headed home by Wharton to put Meadow firmly in the driving seat.
Boyd almost made it 3-0 five minutes later when his side-footed effort crept inches past the post after a sweeping Medda attack.
Pollok continued to huff and puff as they searched for a way back into the game but Meadow were simply in no mood to let their grip on the three points slip.
They defended magnificently from back to front, winning their individual battles all over the park and restricting Pollok’s best opportunities to set-pieces.
The hosts had shouts for a penalty for handball waved away by referee Andrew Craven in the closing stages.
But few would have begrudged Meadow their clean sheet as they clocked up a third Premier Division win on the trot to stay within three points of new leaders Darvel.
Deeney insists he’s not too surprised by the transformation in the Ayrshire outfit’s fortunes since a change of management in September.
He said: “I’ve always thought the players were there. What George is really good at is getting a structure in place.
“The players know what they are doing. Almost anyone can come in and do it because he’s really organised. And that’s all we are - pretty organised.”
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