North End had to battle after terrific start: Preston fan John Roper has his say on win over Wigan Athletic

North End got the perfect start with an opening seventh minute goal from Tom Barkhuizen and before a quarter of a hour had gone David Marshall had made a superb save from Sean Maguire and Scott Sinclair had shot wide when he really should have scored.

However, we let the tempo of the game slip and Wigan only went in one down at half-time when it could have easily been three.

When Daniel Johnson made it two early in the second half it looked game over but North End, once again, took their foot off the gas and when Wigan pulled one pack just before the hour it was game on.

We managed to see it out including six minutes of added time but it was much more tense than it should have been against a Latics side struggling at the wrong end of the table. Alex Neil made two changes from the side that drew at home with Swansea with Maguire coming in for Josh Harrop and Andrew Hughes coming in at left back for Joe Rafferty.

To be honest I thought both Harrop and Rafferty were unlucky to lose their respective places in the side after some good displays in recent weeks. North End got off to a flyer, kicking towards the 3,294 travelling fans, when a ball from Johnson on the left found Barkhuizen steaming in at the back post to give North End the lead.

It was one-way traffic in the early stages and a Maguire header was brilliantly saved by Marshall in the Wigan goal to keep the score down to one. Sinclair was then put clean through in the inside right position but his shot across goal went agonisingly wide of the far post.

Wigan then started to get back in the game and had several corners that North End had to deal with but apart from a handball shout just before half time they never really looked like piercing the visitors defence.

North End looked for a strong start after the break and with no changes at the interval they soon were pressing forward.

Just four minutes into the second half we were two up when good work between Alan Browne and Barkhuizen saw the first goalscorer lay the ball into the path of Johnson who took a touch before firing home.

I thought that would be enough to win the game but just 10 minutes later the home side were back in it. A corner from the right was not dealt with effectively by North End and when the ball came back in Chey Dunkley prodded home almost on the line as North End failed to clear.

There was a different feel to the game and Wigan were certainly inspired by the goal and moved forward with some purpose, however the North End defence was holding firm. A superb save from Declan Rudd, diving to his left, late in the game just about saw North End home even though the referee found six and a half minutes of added time.

These lunchtime encounters never seem to be classics but, once again, North End found that winning touch on the road in this 12-30pm kick off in front of the Sky cameras. It wasn’t a game for the purists based on the 90 minutes but I thought North End went about what they had to do in a very professional way.

Maybe one thing we are just a bit light on at the moment is the inspiration to take teams on and finish them off when we have the upper hand.

So the first part of a very important week is complete with a successful outcome as we move on to the Potteries on Wednesday evening for a tough-looking encounter against an improving Stoke City before we return to Deepdale on Saturday to face surprise play-off challengers in the shape of Millwall.