Mario Vrancic felt the Norwich City players were enjoying themselves during an FA Cup victory at Burnley which should have been far more comfortable.
The Canaries created a succession of chances during the first half of the fourth round tie at Turf Moor but eventually only beat their Premier League rivals 2-1, thanks to goals from Grant Hanley and Josip Drmic.
"It was a good game, we had a lot of fun playing together," said Vrancic. "Of course Burnley is a good side and they had a few good chances but all in all we deserved the win."
Drmic went close on three occasions in the first half, Sam Byram had a shot cleared off the line, Clarets keeper Joe Hart denied both Lukas Rupp and Onel Hernandez, Vrancic was denied by a fine James Tarkowski block, yet still it was 0-0 at the break.
City keeper Ralf Fahrmann also had to make two good saves in an open game, with Tarkowski clipping the crossbar with a header for the hosts as well, but eventually the Canaries did enough to seal a place in the fifth round for just the second time in 13 seasons.
"We need to take every game seriously, that's what we have been doing the whole time," continued Vrancic, one of seven players brought into the starting XI by Daniel Farke for the game.
"Of course we want to create something also in the cup, it's not a pointless competition. We just want to go and play the games, take them very seriously and keep going."
When the goals did arrive Vrancic played a pivotal role, with a curling free-kick from the left headed in by Hanley in the 51st minute and another lovely pass from the left finding Rupp six minutes later, with Drmic tapping in after the midfielder's shot was saved.
It meant a first assist of an injury disrupted season for the 30-year-old, having registered seven alongside 10 goals during the Championship promotion campaign.
"Of course I'm trying to have some contributions in the game, trying to do my job and I think we had so many good chances, I also could have scored in the first half," the Bosnia & Herzegovina international added. "But I'm just trying to contribute to the game, of course with some assists and goals if possible."
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