Simon Grayson was more than satisfied with his North End players following a 2-1 victory over Swindon Town at Deepdale.
On a beautiful afternoon in Lancashire, Preston recorded their third best start to a league campaign ever, with their fifth straight win – a result to make it nine matches undefeated this season.
And a dominant display from the team was enough to leave the gaffer pleased with the afternoon’s work.
Speaking to PNE.Com, Grayson said: “For 75 minutes I thought we were very good, I thought we dominated the game with and without the ball.
“The one good thing about the players that they did today was that they carried out the instructions again because Swindon are a good footballing team.
“We knew we had to stop them from playing and the players worked extremely hard to not allow them to get into their routine of playing and when we played I thought we looked very good.
“But the players got a little bit complacent after 75 minutes, a little bit tired; you can maybe forgive them because of what they’ve done previously, but a good result against a very good team.
“We have different types of ways of winning football matches, I thought the front three were a real handful, up to Kevin Davies who we all know what he is going to do, Stuart Beavon and Iain Hume had great movement and great link up play, the two midfield players dominated as well and the wide players in the wing back positions were a constant threat as well and we limited them to very few opportunities.
“It is high up there in how we have played in the past, but we can only affect today and we‘ve played very well.
“I’d like to give our players a lot of credit for how panicked and rushed some of Swindon’s defending was because we asked them to do that.
“We asked them to do that because Swindon have got players who are comfortable on the ball, so if you are working them and putting them under pressure and they are making mistakes, then you must be doing something right and I think that was probably epitomised by the second goal when we worked and pressed them and it ended up being an own goal.
“I think when you look over the course of the game we worked some great positions and just couldn’t finish the game off.
“The last five, ten minutes was a little bit of edgy stuff and we could quite easily have conceded another goal, but I’m delighted with the result to keep the unbeaten run going.”
Iain Hume was visibly delighted to get off the mark for the 2013/14 season, putting the Lilywhites in front after only ten minutes and Grayson was pleased for the Canadian, but was even happier with his overall contribution to the game.
He continued: “Strikers are always judged on their goals and Iain will be first to admit that he would have liked to have got on the scoresheet in the previous games, but he has been a handful, he has worked well for the team and he was in the right place at the right time today.
“We are not bothered if he scores goals, individuals might do within the team but I’m certainly not and I’m just delighted the players have gone out there and worked extremely hard, played when they needed to and contributed to a good performance today.”
After a September which has seen PNE pick up 12 points from 12 in a month usually renowned for midweek fixtures, the manager believes that the players are benefiting from the extra time on the training pitch in preparation for Saturday matches with the lack of midweek action.
“We like to work hard on the training pitch with the players; we don’t just turn up on a Saturday and do things off the cuff,” added Grayson.
“We work extremely hard, everything is structured towards how we are going to play on Saturday and the free midweeks give us the opportunity to give the players rest during the week and recuperation and to work on technical and tactical things for the game.
“That might change over the winter months when you might have to play Saturday, Tuesday’s, but at this moment in time the players are enjoying what they are doing.”