Caretaker QPR boss Chris Ramsey insisted fevered speculation over the vacant manager's job did not prove a distraction as he guided them to their first Premier League away win of the season.
Just hours before Rangers kicked off at Sunderland, chairman Tony Fernandes used his Twitter account to reveal that he was closing in on a "dream" appointment as Harry Redknapp's replacement.
However, if the news had reached the dressing room, it did not break the players' concentration as they surged to a 2-0 victory at the Stadium of Light, not only their first win on the road but their first points at the 12th attempt.
Ramsey said: "I'm not on Twitter because I'm old and I don't know how to work it. But most youngsters are on it, aren't they? The players are young, aren't they, and they are on it. It's just part of their social media life, isn't it?
"Sometimes everybody knows something and no-one is talking about it. It was one of those. I'm sure they must have talked about it amongst themselves, but no-one really let it get in the way of anything today."
As Ramsey's players went about their business, the club's head of development later insisted he did not know what was happening behind the scenes.
He said: "I haven't been given a brief, to be honest with you. I know there was speculation before and I know everyone is going to ask me about that.
"I know there was speculation before the game, but what we tried to do was keep ourselves focussed for the job at hand, and we were successful in that assignment tonight."
Rangers prevailed as a result of Leroy Fer's 17th-minute header and Bobby Zamora's thunderous finish in first-half injury time, although keeper Rob Green had to pull off two fine reaction saves to deny Connor Wickham and Jermain Defoe.
Asked if he felt he himself deserved the job on a permanent basis as a result, Ramsey said with a smile: "I thought I deserved it before this! At the end of the day, I have said it before, your life can't be defined by 90 minutes or a fantastic swivel shot that Bobby scored.
"Your life can't be dictated by that. You are either the right man for the job, for the long-term plan, or you're not."