Darnell Fisher was delighted as Preston North End put in a ‘fantastic performance’ to defeat Championship leaders Reading with an emphatic 3-0 win at the Madejski Stadium.
The Reading-born defender admitted a defensive sturdiness was required to dig in for the three points, with the clean sheet at the back, combined with goals from Scott Sinclair, Emil Riis and Brad Potts at the other end, ensuring North End’s fine away form continued.
Speaking to iFollow PNE after the game, the Lilywhites’ No.2 said: “It was great; that’s our away record! It was always a test coming here, I’ve never picked up a point here and I don’t think Preston have for many years since I’ve been here.
“It was a fantastic performance to get the three points away, it’s always tough here, but we managed to dig it out and get the three points.
“I thought we were unlucky not to have a goal in the first half. To be fair, Dec made a good save, but I thought we had the better chances; Emil could have got across the front in the first half. Even in the second half we had more chances. I don’t know how Pottsy missed one, his first one with Rhino’s [Ryan Ledson] cross. But luckily, we got the three goals.
“I think coming here, you need to work hard anyway, but to get a clean sheet and score three goals at Reading is fantastic.”
North End might have won by more but for the rare sight of Daniel Johnson missing a penalty early in the second half, when the scoreline was still level, and the defender underlined the importance of derailing the hosts’ momentum after that point.
“DJ doesn’t usually miss penalties so you’re thinking when you get the pen and DJ, you’re thinking goal. Obviously, he’s missed and you just think you’re away at Reading and anything can happen, but we dug in and got the win.
“We needed to get that goal because they got the momentum after that, so we needed to get a goal to kill the momentum and thankfully we did. Scotty has been a great signing for us.”
New signing Emil Riis scored his first goal for the club and Darnell was pleased to see his team-mate on the scoresheet, revealing his strike came from work on the training pitch.
He added: “We did the video work on their full backs coming out, so there’s space in behind the full backs down the side of the centre halves and Emil got down there and thankfully he got the goal.”
Despite being on a fine run of form on the road, the defender remains aware of putting things right on home soil.
“We got into every game trying to win so when we don’t win, we’re not happy. But all the noise outside of our home record and this and that, we don’t listen to that, that’s just fans and people outside. We know what we’re doing and it will turn around soon.”
Watch more from Darnell on iFollow PNE.