Chris Sedgwick helped North End into seventh heaven with a rare strike to send PNE into the FA Cup fourth round.
The North End midfielder grabbed the second goal of the game for the Lilywhites in a demolition of Aidy Boothroyd's Colchester United. It capped a roller-coaster week for the Lilywhites and marked a fine start to the decade for PNE.
"We've come off a run of not many wins so it is nice to get a win under our belt," Sedgwick told pne.com after the match.
"We seemed to get the rub of the green today which hasn't happened for a long time but unfortunately it seemed to come one game too late.
"Every game you go out there you want to win and today it was no different from that. It has been a difficult week with the manager going so the lads have been disappointed in the week and we have put that behind us and we are sorry to see him go, it just seems to be a game too late for him."
Sedgwick's strike took a wicked deflection over Colchester's unlucky keeper Ben Williams but with goals something of a rarity for the PNE No.7 it's unlikely the goal will be sent to the dubious goal committee.
He said: "It was nice to score, it took a deflection on the way in but I am going to claim it, I don't score too many but I will definitely be claiming that.
"Hopefully that's given us a bit of confidence now, it's not that we haven't been playing well, we just haven't been getting the breaks and the goals haven't been going in for us. We've managed to get the seven today and hopefully we can kick-on from here.
"One of the big teams in the next round would be nice, away from home, but everyone wants that so we will see whoever we get and take it from there."
After a difficult week for everyone connected with the Club, Sedgwick stressed the importance for everyone to stick together and pull in the same direction towards the same goal.
"We need everyone to stick together and we certainly did that today and we need everyone pulling in the same direction. The new manager is going to come in sooner or later and the lads will just have to take it from there."
