Greg Cunningham gets better of childhood friend Ryan Manning in Preston's win at QPR

ALSO READ: Runners, riders and run-ins: A closer look at the Championship play-off raceCunningham was up against Rangers winger Ryan Manning, his neighbour in home town Galway.

The pair lived next door to one another as youngsters and used to have a kick about in the back garden.

They had been on the pitch together previously but this was the first Cunningham and Manning were in competition on the same side of the pitch.

Cunningham said: “It was good to see him but the most important thing was us getting the result.

“Ryan is a very exciting player, he is tricky, he drifts and is hard to pick up when he plays like that.

“We had a chat before the game but then it was business as usual.

“Afterwards we had a much longer chat, my old man was over for the game and Ryan’s parents were there too, it was good to catch-up.

“It is great to see a fellow Galwegian doing well.”

Cunningham and Manning played for Mervue United in Galway at the start of their careers.

That was at different times with Cunningham six years older than Manning.

Cunningham’s move into the English game came at Manchester City, with Manning signed by QPR from Galway United.

Victory at QPR was North End’s second the bounce and moved them to within three points of the top six. They face Norwich City at Deepdale on Saturday.

“It’s a big game coming up and our last two results have given us a lot of hope,” said Cunningham.

“Last week at QPR we showed a lot of character in coming from a goal behind to win the game.

“After getting in front we dug in well and made sure we held on to the lead.

“Sometimes you do have to grind a result out and I thought we did that very well against QPR.”