Sir Alex Ferguson described Antonio Valencia's late goal on Monday as typifying Manchester United's history.
The defending champions beat Blackburn Rovers with two goals in the last 10 minutes to go five points clear at the top of the table.
United dominated the match at Ewood Park but did not find the breakthrough until the 81st minute when Valencia drilled home a cross-cum-shot, before Ashley Young secured a 2-0 victory with a precise finish.
"Coming so late in the game, it is an important goal," Ferguson told Sky Sports.
"It typifies the history of the club. If you don't try to shoot, you're never going to find out if you can score like that.
"There was amazing power on it. It could have been a cross, could have been a shot, but it doesn't matter. There was great power (on the attempt)."
Ferguson felt that for all of the possession his team had enjoyed, they had struggled to really test Blackburn goalkeeper Paul Robinson.
"It was a long night," he said. "We just had to persevere and we got our rewards for it.
"We weren't really creating any clear-cut chances – Wayne (Rooney) had a good free-kick saved by the goalkeeper, and there was a lot of great crosses by Antonio that weren't finished off.
"We always had them under the cosh, but we had to be careful of their counter-attack. They were dangerous at that point."
The result win puts United in control as they look to defend their crown, giving them the opportunity to, at least briefly, go eight points clear when they play QPR on Sunday.
"We've scored more goals, which is a big step for us – the goal difference deficit has gone down to only one goal," Ferguson said.
"It could come to goal difference, who knows. It's significant that we've now scored more goals than Manchester City. We look as if we can score.
"We've still got seven games left and my experience of these situations is that it doesn't matter what the points total is at the moment – what is really important is trying to win Sunday's game."
Meanwhile, Blackburn boss Steve Kean is convinced his side are playing well enough to stay up, despite dropping into the relegation zone.
"If we play for the full duration as we did for 80 minutes against Manchester United I am sure the points we pick up will be more than enough," Kean said.
"There were lots of aspects of our performance that pleased us, even though the eventual result is disappointing."
"We are now looking for United to do us a favour against QPR and Wigan."
"We will get plenty of points in our remaining games if we play like that and stretch it out for the whole game," Kean said.
"I think from United's point of view they will have looked at that for 80 minutes and wondered where the goal was coming from because we were getting into good positions off the ball and we were playing it cleverly.
"I thought it could have gone either way but you have got to take your chances and their goals were two great strikes.
"(Manchester United keeper) David de Gea had a great evening for them, pulling out all sorts of saves, so there were lots of aspects of our performance that pleased us, even though the eventual result is disappointing."
Blackburn travel next to West Bromwich Albion before Liverpool visit Ewood Park.
The defending champions beat Blackburn Rovers with two goals in the last 10 minutes to go five points clear at the top of the table.
United dominated the match at Ewood Park but did not find the breakthrough until the 81st minute when Valencia drilled home a cross-cum-shot, before Ashley Young secured a 2-0 victory with a precise finish.
"Coming so late in the game, it is an important goal," Ferguson told Sky Sports.
"It typifies the history of the club. If you don't try to shoot, you're never going to find out if you can score like that.
"There was amazing power on it. It could have been a cross, could have been a shot, but it doesn't matter. There was great power (on the attempt)."
Ferguson felt that for all of the possession his team had enjoyed, they had struggled to really test Blackburn goalkeeper Paul Robinson.
"It was a long night," he said. "We just had to persevere and we got our rewards for it.
"We weren't really creating any clear-cut chances – Wayne (Rooney) had a good free-kick saved by the goalkeeper, and there was a lot of great crosses by Antonio that weren't finished off.
"We always had them under the cosh, but we had to be careful of their counter-attack. They were dangerous at that point."
The result win puts United in control as they look to defend their crown, giving them the opportunity to, at least briefly, go eight points clear when they play QPR on Sunday.
"We've scored more goals, which is a big step for us – the goal difference deficit has gone down to only one goal," Ferguson said.
"It could come to goal difference, who knows. It's significant that we've now scored more goals than Manchester City. We look as if we can score.
"We've still got seven games left and my experience of these situations is that it doesn't matter what the points total is at the moment – what is really important is trying to win Sunday's game."
Meanwhile, Blackburn boss Steve Kean is convinced his side are playing well enough to stay up, despite dropping into the relegation zone.
"If we play for the full duration as we did for 80 minutes against Manchester United I am sure the points we pick up will be more than enough," Kean said.
"There were lots of aspects of our performance that pleased us, even though the eventual result is disappointing."
"We are now looking for United to do us a favour against QPR and Wigan."
"We will get plenty of points in our remaining games if we play like that and stretch it out for the whole game," Kean said.
"I think from United's point of view they will have looked at that for 80 minutes and wondered where the goal was coming from because we were getting into good positions off the ball and we were playing it cleverly.
"I thought it could have gone either way but you have got to take your chances and their goals were two great strikes.
"(Manchester United keeper) David de Gea had a great evening for them, pulling out all sorts of saves, so there were lots of aspects of our performance that pleased us, even though the eventual result is disappointing."
Blackburn travel next to West Bromwich Albion before Liverpool visit Ewood Park.
