Frankie McAvoy says his time as Preston North End interim head coach has gone better than he expected

PNE's 2-0 win over Barnsley at Deepdale on Saturday was the fourth victory of his stewardship, with 14 points put on the board in seven games.

It moved them up to 13th place in the table with one more game remaining at Nottingham Forest next Saturday.

McAvoy said; "There were eight games when I took over and it is a case of seeing what happens at the end of those.

"It is down to Trevor Hemmings and Peter Ridsdale, they are the people who will decide what is going to happen once the eight games are up.

"People know my feelings, I love it here at Preston. I enjoyed a lot of good times with Alex Neil and then I was given this opportunity.

"I thought an opportunity might never come again. Thankfully I've taken it and thankfully the players have responded and we have ended-up doing a lot better than I thought if I'm being honest.

"I didn't think for a minute we would have won four, draw two and lose one of the seven games. We were playing four of the top six in that.

"The players deserve immense credit."

Jordan Storey and Ched Evans scored PNE's goals against Barnsley who were already assured a play-off place.

Both goals came from set pieces, Ryan Ledson delivering a corner for the first and then from Tom Barkhuizen's long throw for Evans' goal.

McAvoy said: "We knew it would be a tough game, you have seen how well Barnsley have done and they've established themselves in the top six.

"Credit to the boys, they worked hard. We worked this week looking at the best way to go and compete with Barnsley and hopefully go and win the game.

"The game plan worked out exactly the way we thought it would do. Our players were very disciplined with what we asked them to do, I'm delighted for them.

"We knew Barnsley were a real threat in attacking set plays themselves, with Alex Mowatt's delivery and their height and presence to attack the ball,

"We worked hard ourselves in training on Friday on our set plays because sometimes a side's strength at one end can become their weakness at the other.

"We felt with the size and presence we had, and with Tommy B's long throw, we could cause them issues and problems ourselves.

"We got two goals come from set plays. No one could complain about our delivery, Ryan Ledson's delivery from corners was excellent."

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