Manager Ryan Lowe praised his side’s “fantastic reaction” to come from behind to beat Stoke City away from home.
Preston North End had fallen behind inside the opening minute of the second half thanks to a superb 30-yard strike from home defender Ben Wilmot.
However, a fantastic goal from Brad Potts followed by an Andrew Hughes header turned the game on its head to send the side in green and yellow home with all three points.
Speaking to iFollow after the game, Ryan said: “[It was a] fantastic reaction from going a goal down. A fantastic attitude to get back in the game. You go down from an unbelievable strike like that – two ‘keepers wouldn’t have saved that – but the reaction from the boys afterwards to keep going and keep playing and to score a fantastic goal [was great].”
He added: “I’m really pleased. It’s tough when you’ve had moments with the Covid situation. The lads have only had four days, a lot of lads missed a lot of football, a lot of training, but I thought the fitness levels were fantastic and the attitude and application was spot on.
“At 1-1 you think 'go on we’re in the ascendency to go and win', and we certainly did that so I’m really pleased.”
Ryan opted to make two changes from the last game, against Barnsley in December, with Ched Evans coming in for Sean Maguire, while Potts played at right wing back instead of Ali McCann.
He would ultimately be the one to draw his side level as he sprinted forward down the right to get on the end of Daniel Johnson’s cross to fire home a remarkable scissor kick.
“[It was a] fantastic strike,” said Ryan. “I’ve just watched it back there and you can see him 40 yards away from goal and he’s got his hand in the air already, even before it’s got to DJ!
“It’s a fantastic clip from DJ to the back stick and a fantastic volley which is worthy of winning any game of football, let alone getting us back into it.
“As I said, I’m pleased with the way we’re playing, how the style is and how they’ve adapted to it. The togetherness is fantastic so long may it continue.”
Potts put himself in and around the away end during the celebrations for that goal, and the team were back in front of the following 1,600 supporters after Hughes’ winner.
The fans were in fine voice on the full-time whistle, too, with manager Lowe celebrating with those who made the journey, and he said he was pleased for them to see their side win.
Ryan added: “We don’t just want to be a team that just turns up, we want to be a team that plays a good brand of football with everyone involved.
"Getting the fans back on side and getting them back selling Deepdale out as much as we can, selling in numbers like they did today.
“I’m really pleased for them because they’ve come, they’ve seen it and at some point they were probably thinking ‘oh we’ve been beat by a worldy goal’, but the attitude and the application of the group to keep going and keep working [was great].
“We always felt there were chances in this game. Me and Marshy [Mike Marsh] watched them against Derby County. They’re a good team with some good footballers, but we thought at some moments we could get some advantage over them and we certainly did that today.
“That’s what togetherness is, bringing the club all together as one, but we can’t get too carried away.
“It’s just a win on the road. That’s two wins now, one at home and one away. We’ve got to keep learning, keep working on the training ground and if we continue to keep doing that then we’ll become a little bit better than we are at the moment.”
Watch Ryan's full interview on iFollow PNE for free at the top of this page.