Ryan Lowe felt his Preston North End side played some of the best football they’ve played for some time in the goalless draw against Coventry City.
North End – following the weekend’s victory over Wigan Athletic – had the opportunities to take all three points on the night against the Sky Blues, with the likes of Daniel Johnson and Liam Delap both coming close.
There were also chances for the visitors from the Midlands, but ultimately neither side could break the deadlock as the sides shared the points under the lights at Deepdale.
Speaking after the game, Ryan said: “I thought it was a good Championship game.
“I think both teams were fighting it out to try and get three points. I thought we had the better of the chances and I thought we kept their top goalscorer [Viktor] Gyökeres quiet in large parts.
“I must say I think we had the best chances and on another day they go in.
“I say to the lads all the time that I’ll accept a lack of quality at times but not lack of effort, but the effort they put in today was fantastic.
“They’ve gone again most of them lads from Saturday and I thought if anyone was going to win it, it was going to be us.”
Over the past few months, the manager has been frustrated with his side perhaps coming away from basics at times and not playing to their strengths.
However, that wasn’t the case on Tuesday night as PNE played some good football, with man of the match Johnson at the heart of much of North End’s attacking play.
Ryan said: “That comes down to the confidence building and that’s what we’ve had today.
“I thought the fans were fantastic from start to finish. We thank them all the time we know, and we know it’s tough at times but ultimately when those players have got confidence they can play like that.
“I thought it was probably one of the best we’ve played for a little while in terms of football and working some patterns of play, and we’ll continue to do that.
“We’ll continue to showcase what we can do and the training ground’s important for us because we can get the lads on the training pitch and we can show them what we want.
“I said to them before that I think the last couple of games have been an emotional fight, especially the Luton game, fighting with ten men.
“Saturday had a bit of emotion involved, but I said today, ‘Have the fight and emotion but remember you’re still a good team and you can play good football.’
“I thought we were back to being not far off us: attacking on the front foot, aggressive, getting crosses into the box and getting shots away.
“We would have liked a couple more on target but there were definitely opportunities to win the game.”