John Smith’s Preston North End Fans’ Panel verdict: Extra smooth at the John Smith’s Stadium

Huddersfield started brightly and looked sharp in the games opening stages and we barely had the time to say “Ow Do “ to our Yorkshire counterparts before finding ourselves a goal down. To our credit we came into the game after a shaky opening 15 minutes and were unlucky to go into the interval a goal down.

Having felt slightly bitter about the half-time scoreline I was delighted with what was an extra smooth second half display at the John Smith’s Stadium.

The game turned in our favour with two quality goals in two minutes from man of the match Alan Browne.

New striker Emil Riis followed up his fine midweek display with another magnificent performance and was a real handful.

After he was pulled back on the halfway line with a tackle which would not have looked out of place at a Huddersfield Giants rugby league game we never looked liked losing the well-earned lead when the home side were reduced to 10 men.

The big Dane almost rounded off his day with a rasping shot from distance in the game’s dying moments.

Hopefully we might have found a real gem and finally found a replacement for Jordan Hugill after a couple of years of searching.

We have assembled a decent squad and on our day are capable of beating any team in this division.

The fact that these last two victories on the road have come without Ben Davies or Ben Pearson is strong evidence of this.

Saturday’s win would normally of had coach loads of fans singing their way back across the Pennines to Preston with the celebrations carrying on late into the night.

Sadly we had none of this but the fine win made my Saturday night feel better in these trying times.