North End supporters bathe in glory after toppling promotion contenders - John Smith has his say on victory over Ipswich Town

It would be fair to say that I felt more pessimistic than optimistic about our chances of gaining a positive result from this encounter before kick-off and would certainly have viewed any draw as a "winning" one.

To use the words of Jimmy Greaves again though "football is a funny old game" and after a nervous five minutes of injury time I was delighted when the referee blew for time after we had secured an unexpected hard-fought win.

I would liken the majority of our first half home games this season to the feeling you have when you are looking forward to going for a nice long relaxing soak in the bath only to find the water to be so lukewarm you cannot wait to get out of it.

However, this one was different and after we had raced into a two-goal lead inside the first 10 minutes, it felt like the water in the bath was that steaming hot you were unable to sit down and could only just about to dip your foot in it.

Although we appeared to go slightly off the boil after our blistering start, it felt like we had added some epsom salts and mood-boosting essential oils to the water when we scored a third goal a few minutes before the break.

At half-time I felt like I had stepped out of the bath nice and relaxed with my mind and body cleansed having a feeling of comfort and easiness which was the polar opposite of my pre-match doubts .

Judging by the number of smiling faces around me at half time it seemed I was not the only one whose mood had been lifted by us being in the unusual situation of having a three-goal cushion.

Having failed to seriously test our goalkeeper Freddie Woodman in the first half, the second one saw all the usual stresses associated with being a Preston North End fan return as Ipswich went more direct and on the front foot, dominating possession with my blood pressure being raised when they pulled two goals back in the last 15 minutes.

However our defence remained strong and resolute as we managed to hold on for what was a fantastic three points.

It was a good all-round team performance. If our game plan was to pick the pockets of the Ipswich defence as they played the ball out from the back then this one was firmly executed with the on fire two-goal hero Will Keane just shading my vote for man of the match.