North End 'win ugly' and that delights Neil
11 Mar 2019 03:58
Published by:
Kian French
PRESTON North End boss Alex Neil admitted that the result was all that mattered as his side ran out derby-day winners against Championship rivals Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park.
The Lillywhites secured the double against their Lancashire neighbours thanks to a strike by Daniel Johnson eight minutes into the clash.
It was North End’s first double against Rovers in 40 years and a fifth away win on the spin that has boosted hopes of gatecrashing the play-off party with ten games of the campaign remaining
Speaking to the club’s official website after the game Neil said: “It was always going to be a tough match.
“We lost a couple of players prior to the game who we hoped would have been ready, but the most pleasing thing for us is that we worked on a 3-4-3 shape which I thought they might have played.
“I think that prepared us and gave us a good chance of coping with that because it’s a difficult shape to play against.
“I thought Blackburn played well in terms of controlling the ball but never really got to the stage where they would hurt us. Sometimes you’ve just got to win games ugly and we certainly did the ugly parts of the game well.
“The most important thing at this stage of the season is wins - and when you look back at this on the calendar, it will have a W next to it and nobody will really care how we played as long as we’ve got the three points.
“We dismantled Blackburn at our place but games aren’t always going to be that easy, particularly when you’ve got key players missing.”
He added: “The one quality move we produced ends up in the back of the net.
“It was a great move which started from the goalkeeper and one which you could say was straight off the training ground.”
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