Sam Allardyce was pleased to see his West Ham United side recover from a slow start to speed past Burnley into the Capital One Cup quarter-finals.
The Hammers took to the Turf Moor pitch just 52 hours after gaining a goalless Barclays Premier League draw at Swansea City, with Big Sam making nine changes to the team that started at the Liberty Stadium.
Just captain James Tomkins and Mohamed Diame kept their places in a 3-5-2 formation that also included Development Squad regulars Leo Chambers, Pelly Ruddock and Dan Potts.
After an indifferent first-half display, Big Sam changed his system and brought on Jack Collison, Stewart Downing and Kevin Nolan. The alterations paid-off as Nolan won a penalty converted by Matt Taylor before Collison was fouled and scored himself from the spot in added time to secure a 2-0 win.
"I told everybody after the Swansea match that we would change the team in terms of the players we would need to use to make sure we had enough fresh legs to cope with a very difficult game," said Big Sam.
"Burnley are top of the Championship and they beat QPR comfortably 2-0 on Saturday. We played on Sunday afternoon at four o'clock and got back late on Sunday night, so it would have been ridiculous of me not to use the players who were fit, eager and raring to go and remiss of me not to play some of the Under-21s who are top of their league and test them at this level.
"Getting the result means I've done my job the right way and that's what I'm paid to do and have to do, irrespective of what everybody from outside West Ham says in terms of what needs to be done.
"The players have paid me back in terms of what needs to be done because the first half wasn't very clever. We had to reshuffle and the defence was there again. We've now played six games away from home and conceded just one goal, and even that was from a penalty that wasn't a penalty.
"We had a back four for the last 20 minutes that included Leo Chambers, Pelly Ruddock and Dan Potts and had Joey O'Brien, a full-back, at centre-half. They defended against Sam Vokes and Danny Ings, who have scored nearly 20 Championship goals between them.
"Jack Collison, Stewart Downing and Kevin Nolan all lifted the team in terms of possession when they came on and we started passing the ball properly in the right areas, getting in and around Burnley and showing their defensive weaknesses.
"Eventually, we got two penalties and they clinched it. It was a well-deserved victory in the end and a really good performance that has got us into the quarter-finals."
While Big Sam did lament the loss of Taylor to a calf injury that will keep him out for a 'few weeks' and a slight hamstring twinge suffered by Tomkins, the manager was happy with the performance of his younger players at Turf Moor.
"After the Aldershot game two years ago, I showed that if they weren't good enough that they wouldn't be here for much longer.
"Now we have a group of youngsters who are top of the U21 Premier League, so they deserved a chance on the basis that they have been winning every week and we needed to test them at this level.
"I need to rotate my squad because I can't keep playing the same eleven all the time, because they will get injured.
"With such a young team out there against a team that is top of the Championship, it was a massive bonus for me to see us win and keep a clean sheet."
In closing, Big Sam said the 2,000-plus fans who had made the long journey to Lancashire had been rewarded for their outstanding loyalty and passionate support.
"I didn't really tell the players to go out and play they way they played in the first half, but the fans gave me a bit of stick walking off and rightly so because they hadn't seen their players play the way they can," said the manager.
"I told them at half-time that our 2,000 fans had paid 80 or 90 quid to get to the game and they were giving them stick so 'What are you doing? You've got a West Ham shirt on and I don't care old or young you are, go out there and give them some entertainment and value for money'.
"I told them 'I'm going to change the system to help you because the current one isn't working, then you go out and play like you can'.
"Systems only work when the individuals play to their best and our individuals did a magnificent job in the second half and gave the fans a lot of entertaining, attacking play at their end. They wanted to see us win and we did."