Alex Teixeira scored three minutes into added time to earn Jiangsu Suning their first win of the season against Shandong Luneng.
Jiangsu, runners-up last season in the Chinese Super League and the Chinese FA Cup, have had a horrendous start to the domestic campaign, but Teixeira's winner moved Choi Yong-soo's side off the bottom of the table and up to 14th.
Diego Tardelli had given Shandong the lead in the 26th minute before former Chelsea striker Ramires levelled a couple of minutes before the hour mark.
Jiangsu, who have performed better in the Asian Champions League having booked their place in the round of 16, looked to be heading for their fifth draw in nine domestic league games until Teixeira popped up to score a winner that eases the pressure on Choi.
The result leaves Shandong in fifth place, level on 16 points with Hebei CFFC.
Guangzhou Evergrande, meanwhile, notched up another win as Luiz Felipe Scolari's team maintained the two-point gap at the top of the standings with a 1-0 win over Changchun Yatai.
Zhang Linpeng scored the only goal of the game for Evergrande in the 68th minute when he smashed Paulinho's layoff into the top corner with a rising drive from just outside the area.
"We expected difficulties in this away game because we have never won easily here and today it was the same, the match was really tight," said Scolari, whose team won their fifth game in a row in the league. "Today we were better at creating and converting chances and that's why we won."
Andre Villas-Boas' Shanghai SIPG continued their pursuit of Guangzhou as Fu Huan scored the only goal of their meeting with Tianjin Teda as Shanghai moved onto 20 points from their first nine games of the season.