Guingamp halted a four-game losing run in Ligue 1 with a 2-1 away win over Lille on Saturday night.
Claudio Beauvue opened the scoring for Guingamp on the stroke of half-time before the strugglers doubled their advantage through Ronnie Schwartz in the 57th minute.
Rio Mavuba pulled one back for hosts Lille with just over 10 minutes remaining, and despite losing Brou Angoua to a red card, Guingamp held on to claim their third league win of the season.
The victory still leaves them in the bottom three but they are now just one point behind Lorient, Evian and Bastia.
The defeat was the second in succession for Lille, who slipped into seventh place, and going into the match they would have expected to claim all three points as they were unbeaten at home with three wins and two draws.
Lille had the first chance of the match in the eighth minute when Sebastien Corchia got forward down the left and crossed the ball which Divock Origi met at the near post ahead of Angoua, however the Liverpool loanee was unable to steer the ball on target.
Guingamp almost claimed first blood on the counter-attack in the 17th minute when Sylvain Marveaux released Schwartz, but unfortunately for the visitors, the former Randers striker could only produce a weak strike which found the arms of Lille goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama.
Lille then started to dominate and Corchia and Ronny Rodelin both went close in the space of five minutes but neither man could work Guingamp keeper Jonas Lossl.
Origi then saw his header find Lossl before Adama Traore teed up Florent Balmont, whose stinging shot was pushed away by the Guingamp keeper.
Therefore it came as a shock when Sambou Yatabare's pinpoint delivery was met by Beauvue, who rose above Franck Beria to power a header beyond Enyeama and put Guingamp ahead.
After the break, Enyeama made a superb save to deny Sankhare at point-blank range to keep Lille in the match, but the visitors did not have to wait for long to go 2-0 ahead.
The impressive Marveaux was allowed time and space to superbly pick out Schwartz, who fired beyond Enyeama for his first ever Ligue 1 goal.
Lille then had a goal chalked off for offside when Origi was deemed to have strayed too far forward before a Simon Kjaer thunderbolt flew over the Guingamp bar in the 74th minute.
The hosts did pull one back, however, through Mavuba who appeared to handle the ball on its way into the net, but it was too little too late as they were unable to capitalise when Angou was sent off for hauling back Nolan Roux with four minutes left on the clock.