Sam Allardyce feels Crystal Palace's quality made the difference as they beat Watford 1-0 to make it three Premier League wins in a row.
An own goal from Troy Deeney midway through the the second half proved decisive in a game where both sides struggled to create any chances of note.
Saturday's victory saw Palace move four points clear of the drop zone and Allardyce was delighted with his side's progress in recent weeks.
"It is now four wins in six. We are getting there. This was a tough game, Watford recently won at Arsenal. We toughed it out and our quality paid off and we deserved the win," said Allardyce.
"We had so many games over the Christmas and New Year period and injuries, the players were looking thinking 'what does he want?' We changed the backroom staff and are now starting to implement our ideas and now are seeing the benefit.
"We are looking very solid. No doubt the biggest problem was the amount of goals we were conceding and now we are not conceding those goals."
Opposite number Walter Mazzarri felt Watford were unlucky to leave Selhurst Park empty-handed.
"We are not happy, there was a foul before the goal and it was an own goal. We did not deserve to lose," said the Italian, whose side are now just three points above Palace.
"We should have played better on the wings, if we did we probably would have scored a goal.
"We did not concede anything, to lose like this is disappointing."
