David Moyes has not been able to look Manchester United fans in the eye at times this year because he has been "ashamed" of some of their results.
Moyes enjoyed what he admitted was his best 90 minutes as Manchester United manager on Wednesday when his team beat Olympiacos 3-0 to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
His reward - if it can be termed as such - is a last-eight clash against holders Bayern Munich.
Before he starts plotting how to beat Pep Guardiola's team of superstars, Moyes must concentrate on a crucial four days ahead.
United visit West Ham on Saturday - without the injured Robin van Persie - before taking on Manchester City at Old Trafford on Tuesday.
If United drop a point in either game, they will be guaranteed to end the season with their worst points total in Premier League history.
But, at least Moyes can go into the double-header with his head held high after Wednesday's win.
"I think the big thing for me was that I could look at the supporters in the face after the game on Wednesday night because I thought we had given them something to shout about," Moyes said.
"We had nothing to be ashamed of with our performance. In some other games I have felt ashamed because the team haven't played well enough and I've not got a team out which has got a good result."
The booming atmosphere inside Old Trafford on Wednesday was reminiscent of the many glorious nights enjoyed by Moyes' predecessor during his 26-year reign.
But one thing which Sir Alex Ferguson achieved which has so far eluded Moyes has been consistency.
Time after time Moyes has seen his team achieve encouraging results but then flop.
United went into the new year on the back of six consecutive wins, but they followed that up with three straight defeats.
It was a similar story in November when Moyes' men won three on the bounce before going three weeks without a league win.
So Moyes was cautious when given the opportunity to describe the win over Olympiacos as a turning point in what has been a severely disappointing season.
"I have been asked a similar question many times this season and I have always said we will build on it but on several occasions we have not been able to do that," Moyes added.
"We need to make sure that we get a bit more consistency.
"It's going to take time, we're not going to be able to do everything immediately but my job over the coming years is to make sure that we get rid of (inconsistency)."
The only negative to emerge from the momentous midweek win was a knee injury to hat-trick hero Van Persie.
He was carried off on a stretcher following a tackle from behind in the dying minutes of the victory.
Van Persie has been put through extensive testing at the club's AON Training Complex in Carrington.
The club recently opened a new imaging suite full of state-of-the-art scanners, but they have been unable to determine how long Van Persie will be out for though.
One thing is for certain, however - the striker will definitely miss Saturday evening's game at Upton Park.
"We're getting Robin re-scanned again today," Moyes said.
"We're just not quite conclusive on everything we've seen yet. we want to just check that out and be sure. He won't be available for tomorrow's game. But we'll try to give you some update when we can on the outcome of it.
"We've got a lot of games coming up and we need all our players fit and available."
Antonio Valencia was another walking wounded member of United's victorious XI.
The winger suffered a huge black eye following a clash of heads with Joel Campbell, and the Ecuadorian is therefore doubtful for Saturday's game.
"Antonio has a real bad eye which is closed over," Moyes said.
"It is not quite settled down yet so we will need to keep an eye on it, if you'll pardon the pun!"
Source: PA
