'That's difficult' - Gary Rowett's take after yet another win over Preston North End

Interim Birmingham City boss, Gary Rowett, felt his team were deserving winners over Preston North End on Easter Monday.

Jay Stansfield scored the only goal of the game, in the 68th minute, at St Andrew's. PNE boss, Ryan Lowe, was left to rue a couple of missed opportunities in the first half and admitted his side did not create enough during the second. As for Rowett - whose remarkable record managing against Preston continued - the importance of the victory was not lost on him.

"I thought the energy, all around the stadium, was very, very positive in lots of moments, in the game," said Rowett. "Sometimes you have got to find different ways to win games. The first 25 minutes, we were really bright and I think we just gave them an opportunity and chance - which maybe just made everyone nervous for those final stages of the second half.

"Preston are a good side and when you look like you want to go and press them, they've got the ability to go over the top of that press and into the front and keep it alive. There were certainly moments where it was hard to build momentum in the game. I thought we defended brilliantly, as a team, all game. I thought we handled the game well and didn't look like a team scrapping away, at the bottom of the table. You could feel that little bit of belief, at the end.

"Today, we showed exactly what we are about. We had some moments today where, if it's a team like Leicester, I think they probably open you up in those positions - so we've got a lot of work to do. We limited them to very, very little. I thought we looked like the most likely team to win and that’s difficult against a resilient Preston team. We had a clean sheet, finished off our chance and maybe could’ve had another."