Danny Searle says he is proud of his players as Waterford FC suffered further playoff heartbreak last night as they lost out 1-0 to UCD at Richmond Park.
Thomas Lonergan's fifteenth minute strike proved decisive as Junior Quitirna missed a 93rd minute penalty to send the game to extra time.
The Blues are now resigned to another season in the First Division while UCD deservedly maintain their place at Irish football's top table.
Waterford boss Searle says it was always going to be difficult having gone behind.
"With certain fixtures - form goes out the window. You need to turn up on the night. You need to do the things that you do well. The issue with this evening is that we gave them something to defend. As soon as we did that, they set their stall out quite early for what they were going to do. They let us have the ball and they were happy to defend."
A dejected Danny Searle said that in truth, their performance wasn't good enough.
"I can't fault the players attitude or effort. Everything they did tonight - they ran themselves into the ground. If we're going to dissect it or if we're going to talk without emotion - our decision making at times was really poor. Our deliveries, our finishing, our opportunities to impose ourselves on the opposition penalty area were minimal to be fair. I want to say how proud I am of the lads, but how many saves did the goalkeeper have to make?".
The Waterford manager moved to defend Quitirna, praising him for having the mettle to step up and take the crucial penalty.
"To be fair to the opposition, they blocked everything in the area. They threw their bodies on the line. Then you get that lifeline. You get the penalty and you think, OK - here we go. Let's get ourselves into extra-time and deal with what we've got to deal with. Credit to Junior. He stepped up. He was brave enough to step up and take it. To sum it up, it just wasn't our night tonight."
