Burnley manager Sean Dyche says his side are trying to "make dreams come true" after they moved up to fourth in the Premier League with a 1-0 win over Stoke, but he admits they are "not the real deal".
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.
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 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." pic.twitter.com/A1cJhqJKdL
— Burnley FC (@BurnleyOfficial) December 12, 2017
"We've kept them to few chances even though I thought they played very well. 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."
