Manager Simon Grayson spoke after his side’s 1-1 draw with Leyton Orient at Deepdale and paid tribute to Sir Tom Finney.
The manager spoke to the media and added his condolences and added that he hoped the players and the Club could honour the great man by going on to achieve success this season.
“It was always going to be a big game, because of where we both are in the league, but it was made bigger after the sad news on Friday night,” he said. “It was a shock to everybody in football, most notably people from Preston North End.
“I think everyone at the football club can be extremely proud at how they have conducted themselves. The supporters of both teams and both sets of players were brilliant.
“It was such sad news. He was such a legend of a footballer and a true gentleman.
“It was a privilege and an honour to go last year and meet him. I never saw him play, but when these people are part of your football club, you owe them the honour of going to meet him and it was a day I will never forget.
“I sat and listened to stories with him for two or three hours and I could have stayed all day.
“He will be sadly missed and our thoughts go out to the family.
“Hopefully he will be looking down on us for the rest of the season and we might give him something to smile about this season.
“There are certain poignant moments in football clubs’ histories and hopefully we can go and achieve something, because what he achieved, giving the football club the reputation the way he did, it would be fantastic for us to show what he meant to everybody.”
On the game itself Simon admitted that he had kept the team focused and felt that the step up in tempo after the break could have brought the win the big crowd wanted.
“The one thing we didn’t want to do was lose,” he continued. “We played okay, without being spectacular. We limited Orient to few opportunities and we asked them to lift the tempo after half-time, which we did and we had the big chance to win it when Kevin Davies had his header, where you waited for it to hit the back of the net, but it just wasn’t to be.
“We are pleased that we have not been beaten, but disappointed that we couldn’t put on a performance and a victory for one special person.
“There was nothing much in the game in the first half. We weren’t at our best in terms of working their goalkeeper and back four, but we were comfortable, except for the odd set piece.
“We knew we had to up the tempo, both with the ball and without it; we did that and got our rewards with the goal and tried to capitalise on it with a second one.”