Manchester City beat Manchester United 2-1 in another fired-up Manchester Derby of the English Premier League, with both managers - Sir Alex Ferguson and Roberto Mancini - saying they were the better team.
Ferguson lamented the result, which reduced United's gap at the top to 12 points with seven games remaining.
"We played well, no question about that, we played some good football," Ferguson told MUTV. "It's a shame to have lost (after 18 league games unbeaten in the league), particularly in a local derby game because you always want to win those.
"We've got seven games to go and it's a healthy lead. But we're not taking anything for granted.
"We just have to kick on. The most important thing is to try and win our next game. We've got Stoke City on Sunday and it's a match we want to win and the performance tonight is a good indication."
All three goals came in the second half with Sergio Aguero scoring the winner in the 78th minute, after a Vincent Kompany own goal had cancelled out James Milner's strike.
"I actually thought we controlled the game in the second half," Ferguson added. "A lot of these big games need a goal to open up and it opened up well in the second half, when I thought we played really well.
"It was a very intense game, both sides were really committed, there wasn't much in it."
City manager Mancini, expectedly, did not see the game the same way, saying the result was proof of the fact that the reigning champions did not deserve to be as far as they are from United in the title race.
"This win changes nothing because the title race is finished now, but it was vital that we won for the second position," Mancini said.
"We proved we shouldn't be 15 points behind, but they have been more consistent and won a lot of games whereas we probably have given away at least eight points in games we dominated and that has cost us this season.
"The goal we conceded was poor but after that, we focused and didn't take any risks. We kept the ball well and responded well after United equalized and played better than they did.
"But we are happy because we played good football and played very well which is the most important thing."
Mancini believes City also deserved to win Manchester Derby at the Etihad earlier this season, which United won 3-2 thanks to a late goal from Robin Van Persie.
"We deserved to win this game but we deserved to win the derby at the Etihad, too," he added. "Tonight we were the better team and won, in December we were the better team but lost -- that's football.
"We want to finish the season strongly and this win puts us seven points clear of third with a game in hand so we should be OK.
"There is still another seven games left but the gap between us and United at the end doesn't mean very much because they could win it by one, ten or 18 points -- it won't change a thing.
"We are at least equal to United this season but they have scored more goals and I think that is the only difference this season."
