Keith Long: 'You can see what it means to the city'

Waterford manager Keith Long spoke of his pride after the Blues secured promotion back to the SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division, courtesy of a 2-1 extra-time victory over Cork City on Friday.

It was a thrilling game at Tallaght Stadium that Waterford had much the better of, particularly in the first half, as they let a number of chances go begging.

They were punished for that in the 55th minute when Cian Coleman headed home for Cork City but a stunning curled effort from Connor Parsons ensured that another 30 minutes would be needed to separate the sides.

Towards the end of the first half of extra-time, Ronan Coughlan was brought down by Coleman in the box, leading to referee Damien MacGraith pointing to the spot.

Coughlan went on to slot home the spot-kick with ease, and Waterford held on through the agony of another 20 minutes of extra-time before their place in next year's top flight was finally confirmed.

"It's a fantastic feeling," Long told RTÉ Sport after the game. "I thought we deserved it. I thought we had a lot of opportunities. We needed to be a little bit more clinical in front of goal and maybe we could have won the game by a bigger margin.

"I know Cork had one or two chances themselves but you can see what it means to the city of Waterford, a club of this stature. It's fantastic for everybody involved. I'm really pleased for this group of players and you can see what it means to them."

Remarkably, Waterford had failed in nine previous attempts in the promotion/relegation play-offs and when asked about this, Long insisted that the club's past hadn't come into his thinking in the build-up to the game.

"What's been and gone is gone," he said. "We have no control over that, it's irrelevant really. We wanted to