Waterford boss Kevin Sheedy praised his "outstanding" players after a rocky week at the Blues ended with a welcome victory.
Media reports suggested that both Sheedy and his assistant Mike Newell did not take Thursday's team training and had departed the club, with the former Everton midfielder being forced to deny he'd departed the club.
Waterford only had three points on the board going into Saturday's home clash against Longford Town but Prince Mutswunguma's early strike gave them a morale-boosting win, achieved with ten men after Kyle Ferguson saw red on the hour mark.
"Social media these days, somebody guesses at something and all of a sudden it explodes from there," Sheedy told RTÉ Sport when asked about the rumours he'd left.
"We've just got on with our jobs and it showed with the preparation and the commitment the players showed.
"I said to the lads it was absolutely outstanding. We played 25 minutes and five minutes of injury time down to ten men against a good Longford side. They gave everything. I'm just disappointed there wasn't a crowd there because they'd have got a standing ovation coming off for the work rate and effort they put in.
"They train exactly as they play. We've just been unfortunate we've not got the points on the board performances like this deserve."
An important win for Waterford as they edge past Longford Town #RTEsoccer pic.twitter.com/o3P7U7TXza
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) April 24, 2021
Longford manager Daire Doyle meanwhile was frustrated by his team's lack of cutting edge as well as the sloppiness that gifted Waterford the winner.
"We probably didn't create enough," he said.
"We'd have liked to have done more ourselves and created a few more chances. We got punished for the early mistake and that gave them something to hold on to for the rest of the game, which to be fair to them they did.
"It was one mistake. Regardless of who you play in this league if you're going to give someone a chance like we gave up today you will be punished."
