Ryan Lowe praised the fighting spirit of his Preston North End side as they came from a goal down to defeat Wigan Athletic at Deepdale.
The Latics – sat bottom of the Championship table – went ahead 27 minutes in through an unfortunate Greg Cunningham own goal.
Within the opening 13 minutes of the second half, though, PNE turned the game on its head, thanks to a penalty from Daniel Johnson and a great strike from Tom Cannon.
The manager said: “I think the character rather than the performance and the fighting spirit, especially in the second half, I’m more than pleased with.
“The lads were fantastic. We asked for a reaction at half-time and I said, ‘Look, this game’s now turned into a fight. It’s a local derby, the football’s not as pretty as we’d like it, but it’s a fight and if you get into a fight I expect you to win the fight’, and that’s certainly what they did.
“We pushed and turned balls in behind, got hold of the ball at the top end of the pitch, put crosses in, and were well worthy of the penalty.
“DJ running off the ball and getting slid in, and obviously for TC [Tom Cannon] to get into a position again, which he’s been in so many times and take that nice little delicate touch to put it in the bottom corner was really pleasing for us, so I’m buzzing for the lads.”
Going into the break a goal down, PNE had a job on their hands to ensure they didn’t taste another defeat on home turf.
With two quickfire goals in the second half putting North End in front, the Lilywhites then held on to their ascendency for the rest of the game – despite late scares when Robbie Brady saw red and play continued into the 100th minute.
On the feeling at full-time, Ryan said: “It is a real feeling, an emotional feeling as well because it’s a draining feeling.
“A ‘thank God for that’ because we know sometimes it hasn’t been pretty and not winning at home.
“We want to try and make this a fortress and I think I said in my programme notes that we’ve got six games left now, and we want to try and win as many games as we possibly can.
“Yeah it hasn’t been good enough, we know that, but what these players do for this football club and for me and my staff, they run through brick walls and they showed that in the second half.
“The fighting spirit was fantastic and that’s what pleased me the most.”