Ryan Lowe praised the character and togetherness of his Preston North End side following the 1-0 win over Plymouth Argyle at Home Park.
There were a number of hurdles to overcome on the day, with three players who started the previous outing unavailable through injury and illness, and Milutin Osmajić and Brad Potts then also limped off inside the opening 20 minutes.
That didn’t stop PNE, though, as one of the substitutes Liam Millar opened the scoring in the 43rd minute and that was enough to earn all three points.
Ryan said: “I’m pleased for the boys and the lads who stepped in. Then we had two injuries early on in the game, which was sod’s law with Browney injured, Emil in the hotel sick, and obviously we lost Whitey last week.
“I said to the group in there that’s the character and the togetherness they’ve got. They’re brilliant.
“We knew it was going to be a fight. They’re trying to win points, but so are we. I said we’ve got to go out there and perform to the levels which we know we can perform to, with and without the ball.
“It was a dogged performance without the ball and with the ball I thought we had some great passages of play.
“We probably could have scored a few more goals. Some of the football was fantastic. Credit where credit’s due to the boys, they were fantastic and it was well deserved.”
The victory sends the Lilywhites into the international break feeling good, and when they return they’ll have a busy end of the season left to attack.
A reaction after last weekend’s defeat to Stoke City is something the gaffer was asking for and he got exactly that.
Ryan said: “We weren’t at the races last week and that was disappointing. I said it might be a bit of a kick up the backside that it’ll give us that urge to go again, and then you lose a couple of players and then in the game you’re thinking, ‘Where’s this going?’
“All credit to the boys. They’ll have a little bit of time off now and we’ve got nine important games to go.
“Let’s have a right good go. We want to stay in the mix and see where it takes us.”
North End were backed by an incredible following of more than 1,050 fans, with supporters leaving in the early hours of the morning to make it to Home Park.
On the support, Ryan said: “Amazing coming all the way down to Plymouth. Some of them have probably had weekends away here.
“I’m glad to send them home happy because that’s what it’s about. I know they’re screaming for me to fist pump but that can wait because we’ve got to keep grounded.
“Keep supporting the lads the way you are because it’s massively important for us.”
