Manager Alex Neil spoke at length to iFollow PNE after the game on the attitude, character and desire shown by his side - both this afternoon and throughout the season.
Neil has been quoted on several occasions this season regarding the work ethic and intensity levels his side show, week in, week out and Neil reiterated that fact post-match this afternoon.
“The character, work effort and organisation of this team is absolutely unquestionable,” stated the boss after his side fought for a well earned point away to Brentford with ten men.
“This team put their bodies on the line; It means so much to them. I know, with the fans who’ve travelled it’s their club, but for these players, in terms of working for this club and working to get us up the league and into the Play-Off places, it means the absolute world to the players. We’re doing as well as we can and if we keep that type of effort up we’ll be fine.
“Pressing the ball and getting after teams is one of our key assets to the game. Without the ball, we are one of the best teams set up. The lads work extremely hard in how they go about it with their intensity, and the commitment they put in to doing it is fantastic and we’ve reaped a lot of rewards off the back of that this season.”
Not since 2011 have North End managed a win at Griffin Park, and although his side couldn’t put that record to bed this afternoon, Neil believes that shouldn’t diminish the point his side gained today with the Lilywhites remaining in touching distance of the Play-Off places, especially considering some of the absentees his side were faced with.
“They worked their socks off today,” enforced the gaffer. “We needed the likes of John Welsh, Calum Woods and Daryl Horgan to come on and put a shift in for us and they did that. Tommy Spurr had his first game in months today and did really well, so I thought all in all, we more than merited the point.
"I don’t think anyone can ask for more effort from the players. Our set up was excellent and we frustrated them for long spells and we nicked the ball off them in good areas and we had a fantastic travelling fan base today as well and they stayed and shown their appreciation to the players at the end which was great for everybody really.
“If anybody said to you - when we sold Jordan a few weeks ago and we didn’t have Tom Clarke, Ben Davies and Ben Pearson available, everybody would have thought ‘this is going to be a tough one’ but we’ve came here - it’s not been a good hunting ground for Preston in the past and we’ve more than merited a point, so certainly looking at other results that went in our favour, so we’ve got it all to play for.”
Watch Alex’s full interview on iFollow now.