Watford manager Walter Mazzarri brushed off suggestions he is fighting to save his job after his side moved up to ninth in the Premier League with a 2-0 win over West Brom.
M'Baye Niang and Troy Deeney were both on target at Vicarage Road as the Hornets held on for victory, despite having defender Miguel Britos sent off with 25 minutes left.
The result puts Watford seven points behind the eighth-placed Baggies in the table but, perhaps more importantly, extends their advantage above the relegation zone to 10 points.
Avoiding the drop, and comfortably, may still not be enough to save Mazzarri, with reports suggesting the Watford hierarchy are unhappy with both the Italian's style of play and lack of fluent English.
Quique Sanchez Flores was sacked last season after leading the club to a 13th-place finish but Mazzarri pointed to his side's convincing display against West Brom as evidence of his positive influence.
"The newspapers say many things. They also said Deeney is signing for West Bromwich and then he wouldn't have played today," Mazzarri said.
"The newspapers can write stories or whatever they want. They are free to do that. I said it before, I speak only about hard work and things on the pitch and in training.
"The rest, whatever they invent I don't care. I want to underline that for me the first 30 minutes is the best game we have played.
"It means after seven months it gives me great satisfaction to see that my team play this football with young players."
Mazzarri had Niang to thank after the flamboyant Frenchman opened the scoring with a stunning strike from 20 yards before setting up to Deeney with a brilliant pass early in the second half.
Niang is on loan from AC Milan but Watford have an option to buy the forward permanently in the summer.
"Aside from the great goal he also gave a great assist that only real champions give," Mazzarri said.
"He listens to me because out of 24 hours in the day I talk to him in his ear for 23 hours. So I think he listens to me."
Watford's victory was blighted by an injury to Sebastian Prodl and Britos' sending off, which leaves Mazzarri short of central defenders ahead of Saturday's visit to Tottenham.
Britos' second yellow card means he will now be suspended for the trip to White Hart Lane while Younes Kaboul is also out with a hamstring strain.
"I am very angry," Mazzarri said.
"Because we miss now Prodl, who got injured, we miss Kaboul, who got injured in the last game, and then two yellow cards for Britos when the yellow cards were non-existent."
Britos' second yellow card after a tussle with Salomon Rondon was one of several incidents to irritate Mazzarri, who left the match early after shaking hands with opposite manager Tony Pulis.
"I don't like to stay until the end and pretend like I'm an actor," Mazzarri said.
Pulis laughed off Mazzarri's prompt departure, comparing it to when Jose Mourinho enraged then-Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert with a similarly brief exit three years ago.
"He did a Mourinho on me," Pulis said. "He shook my hand before the end."
On his side's performance, Pulis added: "The first goal gave them a massive lift. I thought they dominated the first half but we came back into it.
"I'm not going to criticise the players, they gave it a right go, we just lacked a bit of quality and a bit of luck."