Frankie McAvoy was pleased to send the travelling Preston North End supporters home happy following the 3-0 win against Mansfield Town.
Just under 500 North End fans watched on from a noisy away end as they watched their side progress to the second round of the Carabao Cup.
Speaking to iFollow PNE, Frankie said: “[They were] excellent; I thought they were on Saturday as well. It’s just great that fans are back in.
“The Mansfield fans behind us were making a bit of a raucous as well. I’ve said before and I’ll keep saying it, fans make football.
“They’re the life and blood of the game and it’s just great to see them coming here in their numbers and thankfully tonight we can send them home happy with a 3-0 win.”
Scott Sinclair scored the opener for PNE in the first half and he was involved for the second goal too, as he intercepted a goal kick from Mansfield goalkeeper Nathan Bishop and moved goalwards, seeing his effort saved before Emil Riis worked hard to finish off in the aftermath.
While the first goal came at a good time for Frankie’s side, he felt the second was more important to the course of the game.
“The second goal was crucial for us and Emil’s turned up with it, it’s a great finish from him,” said the head coach.
“But Scott again finds himself in that great position when he gets in, the goalkeeper makes a good save, Emil doesn’t give up, he keeps working for it and we get a bit of fortune to score it.
“At the end of the day, sometimes you’ve got to work for those type of things to go your way and thankfully it went our way.
“I thought then you could see we were a wee bit more comfortable with the ball. We started to move it about a wee bit better and you could see we were more confident in terms of taking it, passing, moving and trying to probe. I felt that became a lot better.”
In the last ten minutes of the game, Frankie decided to send on Joe Rodwell-Grant for a special moment for him, making his first appearance in competitive senior football.
It was then time for Jamie Thomas, who joined last week after impressing on trial, to make his debut for the club.
Frankie said: “I was delighted to manage to get Jamie on. I know a lot of people probably gave us a bit of stick for signing him because he was at Bamber Bridge, but I don’t think there’s any questions or doubt he’s got a bit of quality.
“We just need to make sure we keep working with him to get him physically better, physically stronger and he’s got something.
“I don’t think he looks out of place at any stage. You could see some of his forward passing, he looks for that and I’m delighted for Jamie.”
Hear much more from Frankie on iFollow PNE.