Manager Simon Grayson admitted his side had played better than against Huddersfield Town this season and not won the game.
The PNE boss spoke to PNE PlayerHD after his side’s late comeback against his former club and said that the attitude of his side was key to picking up another valuable three points.
“There are a lot of games where we have played better and dominated and not taken opportunities, but today Huddersfield gave us a really tough game,” said the gaffer. “They are good in possession, going forward and are very attack-minded.
“We rode our luck at times and Anders Lindegaard made some good saves when he needed to, but we have a set of players who don’t know when they are beaten. They give everything that they have got and in the end we got a result when on other occasions this seasons we maybe wouldn’t have done.
“We have an attitude that we don’t want to settle for anything other than winning a football match and we sent bodies forward. Huddersfield caused us problems and ultimately scored, but we kept going and got a result that we maybe didn’t deserve today, but we have earned across the season.”
North End started with a 4-4-2, with the PNE chief stating it was something that had been a very tough decision for him and the staff.
“I wanted to play 4-3-3 because I knew it would stop them from playing, but as the home team we wanted to try and take the game to them and so we played with wingers and wanted to get balls into the box,” he continued.
“They didn’t get enough of the ball; we were slow in closing down and moving the ball wide, but we changed to match up against them soon after half-time, but whatever system we were playing we had to be quicker with the tackle
“We needed move the ball quicker and ultimately keep asking questions of their back four and we did that and eventually got the rewards.”
The goal came from an over-lapping full back putting over a cross and Alan Browne – unlike to the game where a puncture had made him 20 minutes late – arriving in perfect time to powerfully head into the bottom left hand corner in front of a delighted Town End.
“We keep saying to the full backs we want you to step in and put balls into the box, but we weren’t allowed to do that in the first half with their wide players pushing us back.
“Calum did ever so well, standing it up and Alan timed his run ever so well and we saw the game out well.”
To watch the full interview, plus an interview with match-winner Alan Browne, click here now to log into PNE PlayerHD – where we will also have highlights from 12 noon on Sunday.