Sean Dyche felt Burnley "more than matched" Manchester United during their narrow 1-0 defeat at Turf Moor.
Anthony Martial scored the only goal of the game as United secured a narrow victory over the Clarets, who slipped down to eighth in the table and stretched their search for a win to eight games in all competitions.
Dyche, however, felt his side performed as well as their second-placed counterparts for much of the game.
He told Sky Sports: "In the end the thing that decides the game today is a fantastic finish from a player they spent a lot of money on for that reason, for those moments of quality.
"Other than that, I think we've more than matched Man Utd in the application of the players, for quality of the play, some really good play from us today, and certainly the tactical format.
"But inevitably you don't come away with what you want, which is a minimum of a point and a maximum of a win.
"It's a massive task, a huge task [to break into the top six]. But today, football-wise I don't think you saw that gap, I thought we certainly gave as good as them on many levels, but the moment of truth was a fine finish."
Burnley, who have reached the heights of fourth place in the Premier League this season, are going through a tricky spell of late which has seen them drop to 12 points behind the top six.
However, Dyche insists bad runs of form are inevitable for teams below the leading pack, and was encouraged by his side's performance despite the result.
"It's not easy taking on these clubs of this side, and I thought the performance level was good. "Arguably as good a performance as we've had this season. That's pleasing in itself.
"It's not easy when you're having a bad run in the Premier League, and statistically that's every side outside of the top six this season, who have had a run like that at some point.
"You've got to look at the performance level too and I thought it was good today."
Burnley recently agreed a fee and personal terms to sign Everton winger Aaron Lennon, according to Sky sources.
Yet Dyche would not open up on this, stating that their proposed transfer is one of multiple possibilities for his side.
"He's a possibility, there's a few players we've been linked with, and a few we're interested in, so we'll have to wait and see."