Sam Allardyce hailed West Ham's 1-0 win over Sunderland as a "fantastic result" and rejected vice-chairwoman Karren Brady's recent criticism of the team.
Allardyce's men have shipped several late goals in recent months, costing them the chance of at least two victories, but it was them celebrating at the death on Saturday thanks to Diafra Sakho's 88th-minute winner.
That earned West Ham their first win in nine league and cup games, and afterwards Allardyce rejected Brady's suggestion the team had been "underachieving."
Although the question put to Allardyce actually referenced Brady's comment as "underperforming" rather than "underachieving," the Hammers boss was quick to defend his players.
He said: "She's wrong. We're not under-performing, we're under-results-getting, so she's wrong in what's she's saying. Performances have been there -- there's not been too many poor performances this year, hardly any performances here have been outstanding.
"Our performances have been good; results haven't matched the performances we've given. So underperforming? No. Should we have got a lot more results than we did? Yes.
"It shows that the squad isn't quite big enough this season, that we haven't quite got the strength in depth we need to maintain a place in the top eight."
Allardyce has been linked with the Sunderland manager's job following Gus Poyet's recent dismissal, but the 60-year-old was in no mood to answer anything on that subject, saying: "Give over and don't ask silly questions."
West Ham captain Kevin Nolan, meanwhile, conceded the win over Sunderland was far from pretty but was delighted to finally see the Hammers on the right end of a late goal for once.
"Better late than never! We've had a few of them against us in the last five-six weeks. It's been a long time coming this win,'' Nolan told Sky Sports 1.
"We've been playing ever so well but probably not getting the points we deserved. We knew it wasn't going to be pretty but we won and that's the main thing.
"I'm just delighted to get the three points. I thought we deserved it overall. It wasn't our best performances of the season here, but it's three points and it's massive for us."
The win sends West Ham ninth in the table with eight games of the season remaining.