PNE boss Neil pleased with progress after Morecambe win

Tom Barkhuizen opened the scoring against his former club before Ben Pearson fired home a fine drive from 25 yards.

The Lilywhites are still trying to adapt to their new manager’s demands with that work continuing against Jim Bentley’s League 2 side at the Globe Arena.

Neil said: “Probably the same as the last game (a 2-1 win at Stockport on Saturday), I thought we started okay and as the first half wore on we got better.

“We kept possession of the ball well although I still don’t think we were aggressive enough moving the ball forward.

“When we got in some good areas in the final third, our touch let us down a bit.

“Generally that sharpness comes just before the start of the season so at this stage it is not the most important thing.

“Overall it was a good workout for us.

“The first 15 minutes of the second half I thought we played really well and probably created more chances than we had in the whole of the first half.

“We then made all those changes and the game went through a lull at that stage as you would expect.

“All in all, you could see the lads are starting to move the ball with more confidence, there were some good individual performances.

“We are getting better which is good.”