Ryan Lowe felt his Preston North End side put in a “fantastic performance” as they took all three points home courtesy of a 2-0 win against Queens Park Rangers.
Both sides created opportunities in the first half which could have resulted in the opening goal, before North End took the game away from the hosts in a four-minute spell in the second half.
Tom Cannon opened the scoring for his side in the 59th minute – heading home from Robbie Brady’s cross – before he grabbed another to seal the victory shortly afterwards.
The manager told iFollow PNE: “I’m over the moon. I think it was a fantastic performance and a good result.
“We’ve got to keep level-headed of course because when you come to these places it’s tough and we knew it was going to be tough early on in the game.
“But the way the lads performed and worked the patterns of play, and being defensively solid and resolute was fantastic.
“We could have scored early on in the game; it wasn’t for the lack of trying. We created some good chances, but when we came out in the second half we looked a different team.
“I thought we dominated from start to finish, created some good openings, defended solidly as I said, so overall I’m pleased with the three points and the performance.”
PNE headed to Loftus Road as the favourites on the back of a derby day victory over Blackpool, coupled with the form of the home side showing just two wins in their previous 23 Championship fixtures.
It was never going to be a straightforward afternoon, though, and the hosts actually could have taken the lead through a one-on-one situation in the first half, but it was PNE who made the breakthrough and were well worthy of the points.
Ryan said: “QPR are fighting for points and they can be dangerous at any point because they’ve got some good quality players.
“But it was important we made sure we didn’t give them an inch to take a mile, and we had to make sure that when we were on top we had to score.
“That was the message to the group at half-time, to get the first goal and get two or three potentially.
“Overall I’m pleased with the performance and the three points definitely, and we all are probably getting a tiny little bit excited, but we’ve got to wait until Monday because we’ve got another game.
“We’ve got a points tally of what we want to try and get to, and that’s set from me, the staff and the players.
“If we get that, that gives us a really good chance with five games to go [after Reading].”