Frankie McAvoy gives special mention to Preston North End defender Liam Lindsay after draw against Fulham

And the Lilywhites head coach gave special mention to Liam Lindsay for his role in the 1-1 draw at Deepdale, the centre-half nullifying the threat of 21-goal Aleksandar Mitrovic

Lindsay was only in the team after Patrick Bauer failed a late fitness test but the Scot produced a measured performance at the back.

North End fell 1-0 behind in the 15th minute to a goal from Cottagers captain Tim Ream who turned home a free-kick from Jean Michael Seri.

But they worked their way back into the contest, Ched Evans netting the equaliser in the second half 12 minutes after coming on as a substitute.

McAvoy said: "Pat failed a late fitness test this morning and if he had been fit, Liam would probably not have played.

"So every credit to him, he stood up to be counted and the one thing Liam does is defend his box well

"He put himself against the best striker in the Championship and did really well."

"Credit to Fulham they are a good team, free scoring and have the best away record in the division.

"To a man the players were fantastic and I'd like to mention Jordan Storey as well.

"Jordan was starting in the team, then went out of the team, went on the bench and then found himself out of the squad.

"He was called upon today when Tom Barkhuizen got that injury. He might not have been everyone's sub but I was very comfortable in pushing Sepp van den Berg higher and putting Jordan on.

"I was also delighted Ched came on and made another impact off the bench

"He's a real threat, not only is he a threat for us he causes the opposition all sorts of hassle."

The early news concerning Barkhuizen's injury doesn't look great, the wing-back hurt in a challenge by Antonee Robinson which looked deserving of a red card rather than the yellow he got.

McAvoy said: "Tom is in a boot at the moment so he'll need to get an X-ray to see how he is. He's not too good.

"I hadn't seen it back when I was speaking to the Sky guys and I felt at the time it was a yellow card - I was 70 yards from it.

"I've now seen it back and it could have been a red card, it was a bad challenge.

"It's a bit of both, ankle and shin."

Reflecting on PNE's approach to facing Fulham, the division's highest scorers by some distance, McAvoy said: "Teams have gone a bit more aggressive against Fulham than we did and got punished severely.

"The analyst boys studied Fulham closely and felt the best way to go was 3-5-2, becoming a five when we didn't have the ball, with a flat three in the middle of the park - similar to how we did against Bournemouth and Liverpool.

"Us conceding early made it a bit harder but credit to the players, we came back.

"When you concede early you still have to be disciplined and keep your shape, even though the supporters naturally want you to be a little bit higher up.

"The most important thing is not to concede a second goal, just make sure we stayed in it - we know when the time is right to go and force it to get an equaliser.

"I felt the players did that."

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