Ahead of the final match of the campaign, Ryan Lowe praised the “magnificent” PNE fans for their support throughout the season.
More than 1,250 supporters are set to head to The Hawthorns at the weekend to face West Brom for the 46th match of the Sky Bet Championship campaign.
North End have been backed superbly on the road all season long, with a number of sell-outs along the way, and the gaffer is looking forward to seeing one more packed away end before the summer.
On the impact of the support, Ryan said: “The fans have really rallied them through. Especially at home, with the more points we’ve got this season, they’ve really got behind them.
“I think it was the Bristol City game at half-time, I really remember that, when they really galvanised and got behind them.
“The away fans have been magnificent all season. I know all the home fans can’t get to all the away games, but the away fans have been awesome and it doesn’t go unnoticed.
“So, keep doing it and hopefully on Saturday we can put in a positive showing and get a positive result to sign the season off.”
With the campaign coming to a close, the manager reflected on the campaign as a whole, which started with an incredible eight-game unbeaten run, including six straight victories.
North End headed into a recent run of fixtures with eyes firmly on the top six, with the opportunity to close that gap to just two points to Norwich City, but defeat all but ended those hopes.
Saturday’s opponents may need a positive result if they’re to extend their season, currently sitting sixth with Hull City two points behind.
On the season, Ryan said: “Mixed emotions really. I’m proud of the boys with what they’ve done and proud of everyone associated with where we’ve got so far.
“I’m disappointed with the last few games with not picking up any points. We were really pleased when we hit a bump in the road [earlier in the season] with how we got out of it. The lads really stuck to it and fought for each other and fought to collect more points.
“The start of the season was fantastic. We probably got our hopes up a little bit too much because we knew it was always going to be a tough campaign.
“I think the Norwich game was disappointing. I thought we played well but didn’t have that quality and then we concede late on through an individual error. Then the games we’ve had of late have been tough. The QPR one was disappointing because we felt we should have gone there and won.
“The other games have been tough for different reasons with teams who are trying to get into the Premier League of course. Saturday’s no different. It’s a team that have been in the Play-Offs all season, who have lost their last three games and they now need to win to get in the Play-Offs. We need to win as well to break that 63 points, and if we can get to 66 points I think it’s been a very good season.
“We would have liked to have had an excellent season and stayed closer to the Play-Offs, but if we can get more points than we had last season it’ll be a big achievement from where we came from.”
