Aitor Karanka was refusing to dream of promotion to the Barclays Premier League after seeing Middlesbrough climb back to the top of the Sky Bet Championship table in dramatic fashion.
Substitute Adam Forshaw struck four minutes into stoppage time to secure a 2-1 victory over Reading at the Riverside Stadium and ease Boro two points clear of Burnley with just five games remaining.
However, while the locals headed for home contemplating a return to the top flight after fives successive wins, three-times Champions League winner Karanka was thinking only of Saturday's trip to relegated Bolton and the three points on offer there.
The Spanish head coach said: "Now, for example, I am really pleased because we won the game, but when you are a coach, now my feelings are I am happier for them [the players] than for me.
"They deserve to live this situation and now I am going home and I am going to dream about Bolton tonight. When you are a coach, you enjoy it especially with players like them, who are doing their best every single day."
Asked if Boro are now favourites to go up, Karanka was equally non-committal.
He said: "When I arrive tomorrow at 7am to my office, I will just have one thing in my head: Bolton."
Karanka's men snatched victory when Forshaw finally beat stubborn Royals keeper Ali Al Habsi at his near post after the ball had ricocheted around the penalty area from Stewart Downing's right wing corner.
The evening had looked like ending in frustration for the Teessiders until that point with Simon Cox's first goal in 16 months having cancelled out Emilio Nsue's 10th-minute opener to set the stage for a remarkable individual display by Al Habsi.
Reading boss Brian McDermott, who saw striker Matej Vydra pass up a glorious chance just before Forshaw struck, said: "It should have been three points. We had a chance at the end there and just didn't score, and they punished us at the other end.
"One-nil down after 10 minutes, it's never an easy place to get a result here, as everybody is proving this year, so I think we have given them as good a game as anyone has given them this year.
"After the first 10 minutes, we knocked it around really, really well and I just thought we were really unfortunate to come away [empty-handed]. Sometimes football is a cruel game, as we know."
Meanwhile, Karanka was less than impressed to learn striker Cristhian Stuani had been banned for three games earlier in the evening after he was convicted on video evidence of a Football Association charge of violent conduct.
He said: "I don't want to say a lot of things, but the only thing I can say is my feelings, which are that I don't think it is fair because I don't think all the teams are playing in the same conditions."