Ben Whiteman feels the clean sheet and draw against Norwich City could be a “building block” for Preston North End.
Heading to Carrow Road after three successive defeats, PNE were keen to get back to basics according to the midfielder, including tightening up at the back.
That was never going to be an easy job, though, against one of the division’s top-scoring teams, but North End worked hard to prevent the hosts breaking the deadlock, while at the other end the Lilywhites had chances themselves.
Asked if he’s happy with the point following recent form, Ben said: “I think so, going off the week we had.
“Obviously we came here with a gameplan and I thought we should have nicked it at the end.
“It’s one of them where it’s a little building block now and hopefully we can kick on in the week.
“We mentioned in the week we need to get back to basics a little bit, starting with a clean sheet, and we did that.
“We had our chances as well. On another day they go in and we take all three, but I think the lads deserve massive credit today on the back of two bad performances.
“To come here today and nullify them to an extent and keep a clean sheet is a massive credit to them.”
The No.4 came closest for North End to breaking the deadlock, as he got into a good area and struck a first-time effort against the crossbar in the 63rd minute, and he feels he should have scored.
Nevertheless, PNE kept tight at the other end to take a point ahead of a midweek trip to Huddersfield Town.
Ben said: “I think if you look at a week in football, it’s a long time, isn’t it? You get the three bad results and the world’s against you really.
“Hopefully we can spin it this week and go to Huddersfield on Tuesday and get a positive result to make this result even better.
“I think if you look at the Championship as a whole you’re going to have dips.
“We know that it’s not good enough the past two games and we’ve had a reflection this week, and I thought you could see that in our defensive shape.
“We’ve tried to go down the other end and nick one but it wasn’t to be today, but it’s a massive building block going into Tuesday.”
Like manager Ryan Lowe, Ben was also keen to thank the following support who made the long journey to East Anglia.
“Unbelievable support,” he said. “It’s sort of a marathon to get here, so to spend their hard-earned money coming here and supporting us is unbelievable.
“The lads do really appreciate it and we can hear them at the end and they gave us a warm send-off.
“We thank them for coming and hopefully we can start repaying them with some performances and results.”