Five games without a win had seen AC Oulu drift away from the title race, but their European hopes are back on again after beating Ilves, whose two-match winning run came to an end.
The only goal of the contest came 10 minutes into the second half, when Rasmus Karjalainen made sure he was first to a loose ball on the right and produced a pinpoint cross for Abdoulaye Kone to bury with his head.
That goal clinched a first three-point haul since 18th June for Oulu, while the Tampere side stay ninth and missed the chance to close the gap on the top six to two points.
That chance for Ilves came about because six-placed VPS were beaten for the third game in a row, and this time it was Inter Turku who took the points to close the gap to KuPS at the top of the table back to five points.
The crowd only had to wait until the 17th minute for the only goal in this one, not that it would have cheered the home crowd in Vaasa. Eeli Kiiskila struck his 20-yard free-kick low, and a deflection on its way through carried it past the goalkeeper.
It's just a second win in eight in the league for FC Inter, who have been going well in the UEFA Conference League qualifiers. They have a four-point cushion over Oulu in third.