Liam Chilvers was at the centre of much of the heroic rearguard action that ensured North End got their first three points of October last night and he told pne.com that for himself and his fellow defenders and midfielders the main aim before last night was to be far more solid than Saturday.

"The most important thing was being more solid and showing more than we did on Saturday and we knew it was going to be a tough place to come to considering some of their results this season.

"We knew they were going to come at us earlier on and I think they did, they threw everything at us and I think by the skin of our teeth we kept everything out but we did well and hit them on the break and whenever we got the ball down and played a bit, like in the second half, we caused them alot of problems and some people would say we were lucky but we worked so hard that I think we deserved it."

At times in the first half it was a case of battening down the hatches as the home team launched attack after attack but the second half was a different story as North End asserted themselves in their hosts' area and Chilvers agreed that PNE passed it better in the second 45 minutes.

"They played 4-4-2, we matched up to them, we knew how they played but in the first half we didn't really do that however in the second half we did, we closed down a lot better, beat them down the sides, turned them round and we got what we deserved and it's a good three points."

Behind Chilvers and Collins Andy Lonergan was in fine form, pulling off three or four incredible stops in the first half to ensure North End were able to stay in the game.

"He pulled off a great one, in the build up to one of them I thought there was going to be a foul but he played the advantage and he managed to stop one from four yards. It was a great save but that's what they're there for aren't they?!," Chilvers deadpanned afterwards.

And apart from Michael Gray's goal the one time Lonners couldn't stop the ball going past him was in the second half when Jermaine Johnson beat the number one to a looped cross and seemed set to head Wednesday level but Chilvers was there to clear, it transpires that this wasn't a lucky clearance either.

"It was one of those where I could see there was only one player he could pick out so I just gambled and went to the near post and as it was it just came onto my head but then that's what I'm there for and get paid to do."

Next up is Middlesbrough and the return of Chilvers' former defensive partner Sean St. Ledger, a game that the former Colchester man thinks will require a different approach.

"He's done well since he's gone there, they've had a few bad results of late but they're a good team, it'll be a different game to hard-working performance so we'll take that into the next game and with good passing we should do well."

Extended highlights of the game will be on PNE Player from 10pm this evening, sign up for free now to test it for 14 days - click on the logo on at the top of the page to find out more.