Josh Brownhill almost got the perfect birthday present on Saturday against Crawley Town with a goal and three points, but Gary Alexander blew out his candles late on.
Brownhill, who won’t turn 18 until next week, made his tenth appearances for the Lilywhites at the Checkatrade.com Stadium and grabbed his second goal for the Club in the process in a 2-2 draw.
And the central midfielder insists that today was one point gained rather than two dropped, despite PNE being two in front early on in the contest, only for Alexander to score in stoppage time to deny the visitors the win.
“I thought in the first half we played very well and in the second half they came out and started better than us and we didn’t manage to get a grip on the game,” said the North End No.30.
“It is a good point, we have got Brentford next week and we are going to have to beat them to go back above them in the table.”
To state Brownhill’s goal was sublime would be an understatement, the midfielder breaking forward before keeping his cool to chip the ball over Paul Jones in the Red Devils goal.
And the youngster immediately wheeled away to celebrate with substitute goalkeeper Thorsten Stuckmann, after the 17-year-old had done the same thing to the German stopper in training last week.
Discussing his goal, Brownhill said: “I am very happy to score another goal away from home and on my tenth game so I am pleased.
“I chipped Stucki this week in training and he didn’t seem very happy, but he said to me before the game today that I would score a goal today with a chip and I did, so that is why I ran over to him when it went in.”
Saturday was the latest chapter in the unpredictability and drama of Sky Bet League One, with four of the top five sides either losing or scoring a goal in the last minute to change the full time outcome of the game; the only one not to do this, Wolverhampton Wanderers, lost at home to MK Dons.
And the latest round of results was yet further proof to Brownhill and his team-mates, that any positive result is a good result in the 2013/14 season.
“This league is so tight as you seen with the results today,” continued Josh.
“Teams can take points off any other team in the division and we just need to make sure that we stay strong and carry on our unbeaten run.”
The Lilywhites put that 11 match run on the line next Saturday at home to Brentford, who leap-frogged North End in the league table today, with this match marking the only December fixture at Deepdale this season.
And Brownhill is hopeful ahead of the clash, that the impressive league form of late can continue.
He added: “We have got Brentford next week and we need to make sure that we beat them as we want to carry on our good form and stay up there in the league table.”