Burnley manager Sean Dyche insisted his side are "not the real deal" after they beat Stoke City 1-0 to move up to fourth in the Premier League.
Ashley Barnes, a second-half substitute, scored from the edge of the box in the 89th minute to send the Turf Moor crowd into raptures on Tuesday after Burnley had struggled to break down a Stoke side determined to end a miserable run of form.
Dyche admitted Burnley earned all three points without playing the most attractive football, but warned this was an approach he would deploy again where necessary.
"If you're going to dream, you have to prepare make the dreams come true and that's what we try and do," Dyche told BBC Sport.
"We attempt to give the players a platform to go and play. Tonight was a different style of getting a result because we've had to be dogged, we've had to dig in. It was really hard-fought, ugly game at times in very harsh conditions for both teams. But we found a way to win."
"The game was as ugly as the weather, but it's one of the most pleasing results of the season." December 12, 2017
Burnley have won six of their last eight Premier League games and the win over Stoke moved them a point above fifth-placed Liverpool ahead of the Reds' clash with West Brom on Wednesday.
Dyche, who takes his side to Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday, will look for another clean sheet at the AMEX Stadium.
"We've kept them to few chances even though I thought they played very well," Dyche said of Stoke. "They had the better share of the first half and we grew into the second half and scored a real, real fine goal.
"Sometimes that's football. You've got to do all the ugly basics and fine details and I thought we did that well tonight. That's something we'll have to do again.
"We're not the real deal, we're a side that are improving but the margins are tight in all of our performances. We're certainly getting on the right side of them."
