City could have moved within six points of the top six with a win on the south coast only to be frustrated by inspired home keeper Daniel Peretz in a 1-0 defeat.
Clement told City’s fan base to dream big prior to the midweek setback, with Norwich now in need of a late season winning surge ahead of a trip to Charlton to revive any faint top six bid.
“I’m not a dreamer. You guys are the dreamers, and our fans can be dreamers. So I’m not a dreamer. I’m busy with the next game,” he said. “You’re going to get bored of me about that, but it’s the way I’ve been in football the last 20 years.
“I maybe made that mistake in the first 12 or 15 years of my career, to be busy with all those things. It’s of no use to look at the ranking, and we don’t have any control what the other teams will do in these next matches.
“I don’t even know how many games we’re going to play, nine or 10 or something like that. No, it’s not important. It’s about our performances.
“And then the last two or three games of the season you can see where you are in the ranking, but it’s already amazing how many people speak to me about play-offs, when half of November the club had nine points out of 15 games.
“Now we continue pushing the players every game to go for the three points like we did at Southampton.”
Clement felt conflicted by City’s 1-0 St Mary’s setback.
“It didn’t happen so much in my career that even shortly after the game I felt more proud of the team,” he said. “Gutted about the loss, because the way the team played in the second half was a really, really high standard – creating good chances against a good opponent.
“Straight after the game, yes, I always say something to the players, and I told them also that it doesn’t happen so much that I would feel that way.
“I hate to lose, and I’m always gutted about that but I told my team I was proud of them and they deserved to hear that, and it’s now about recovering fast, because on Saturday we have a new one.”