Simon Grayson has won the Sky Bet League One Manager of the Month Award for September.
After an unblemished record of four wins from four matches against Oldham Athletic, Stevenage, Sheffield United and Swindon Town respectively, the award is a well-deserved pat on the back for the manager.
“It doesn’t get any better than that,” said the gaffer when asked about winning every league match in September and receiving the award.
“We have got maximum points, played some very good football in between and it’s recognition of what the players have done on the training pitch and obviously carrying that into games.
“We are delighted, we said a few weeks ago that we hadn’t really achieved anything by having a good month, we want to carry that success on for many more weeks and months to come.”
Grayson beat of competition from newly named Carlisle United manager Graham Kavanagh, Walsall’s Dean Smith and former PNE boss Darren Ferguson – who just so happens to be the man in charge at London Road, a place the Lilywhites travel to on Saturday.
And despite hearing of the dreaded curse that comes with manager of the month success, Grayson was quick to knock that thought on the head.
He continued: “People talk about this voodoo when you win manager of the month, the next game you always lose, but I have won it a few times before and gone on to win the next game, so these things are there to be broken if people think that they cause any problems.
“It is recognition of what the players and the Club have done and hopefully we can carry on the good form that we have had over the last few weeks into a real tough game at the weekend.”
In what has certainly been a purple patch for North End, the gaffer has been fortunate to find an almost fully fit squad to choose from on a regular basis and the lack of players on physio Matt Jackson’s treatment table is certainly a key to September’s success according to the boss.
He added: “When you are winning games, injuries aren’t as frequent as when you are losing games.
“Relationships develop when players are in the team on a regular basis, but it’s the work the players have done on the training pitch and the confidence levels have grown.
“I think we have a platform from the first four games where we were hard to beat without really having that cutting edge, we changed the system to try and give us that impetus further forward but keep the defensive shape as well and it has all worked well.”
Everyone at Preston North End would like to offer Simon our congratulations on his thoroughly deserved award.