Saturday 7 April 2018 19:27, UK
Sean Dyche said "lucky" Burnley had given themselves a "fine chance" of thinking about European qualification after a fourth straight win at Watford.
The Clarets manager knew his side were well from their best at Vicarage Road, and looked out of the game until two goals in three minutes turned Watford's 1-0 lead on its head in the closing stages.
But having hit form at the perfect time, Burnley are now six points ahead of their nearest rivals Leicester in the race for seventh place, which will be enough for a Europa League spot unless Southampton win the FA Cup.
"There's a lot of games to go," Dyche said. "The lads have given themselves a fine chance of that sort of thinking, and the feeling in the group and the mentality between the fans and the players and long may that continue.
"The reward for the players is having gone into the last eight games of a Premier League season knowing the first marker has been achieved and that's a big sign of progress for us.
"Now they can look to enjoy their football. Even today, we didn't play as well as we can but we found a way."
Dyche's decision to introduce Sam Vokes from the bench turned out to be an inspired one, with the Welshman netting 22 seconds after entering the pitch with his first touch.
His goal had a stroke of good fortune about it, having come from Adrian Mariappa's unintentional assist, but Dyche paid tribute to his players' grit and determination to grind out a historic win.
He said: "Sometimes you can't define it. Obviously, I'm not thinking it's gonna come that quickly, but it was a great finish, a very calm finish. The mentality was superb today.
"They're a good side, Watford, we've got a couple of injuries again unfortunately and the mentality of the players got us through.
"Sometimes it's down to a bit of luck, we had that today, sometimes it's down to the ugly stuff, there were periods in the game when we did all the details, had the right shape, and people working very very hard, which is as important for us as the skilful side of the game."
