Preston North End

The Lilywhites boss spoke to the online TV channel after his side recorded their first home win of the season thanks to Eoin Doyle’s second minute strike – his first for the Club – and he was delighted to have ground out the three points.

“We’ve played better at home and not won football matches this season,” admitted the gaffer. “Sometimes you have to really dig deep, grind out results whatever it takes win a football match. I thought tonight Forest were good, they showed their qualities, but we were resilient. 

“We defended well as a team, we made the blocks, but we gave away far too much possession for our liking, but we dug deep and got the three points and ultimately that’s all that matters. 

“It was a good start for us; we knew we wanted to be positive and get balls into the box, playing further up the pitch and getting bodies in the box and Joe Garner had a good header and we had one or two other good opportunities as well as the goal, but we didn’t quite get the balance right in that first half. 

“We were a little bit too open and vulnerable to the counter attack of Forest. However, we changed things during the second half to nullify one or two of their areas and ultimately when they threw  things in the box we defended well and got the rewards of another clean sheet.”

The win made it five games unbeaten and North End also made it five games without conceding and eight clean sheets for the campaign – the joint highest in the division – something the manager was very pleased with.

“It’s a remarkable run of five clean sheets at this moment in time, but it also nice for one of the strikers to score. 

“It is about getting points on the board. 

“We want to play well and pass the ball around, but hopefully that will come as we get a little bit more belief, but tonight we executed the game and managed to win.”