Paul Heckingbottom reaction to Preston North End's win over Middlesbrough and 'ridiculous' groans

Preston North End manager Paul Heckingbottom hailed another strong performance as his team beat Middlesbrough 2-1 on Saturday.

Stefan Thordarson fired the Lilywhites ahead after 28 minutes with a fine solo effort. Boro hit back just before the hour through Delano Burgzorg, who weaved his way into the PNE box and displayed a calm head to slot home.

But, 12 minutes from time, Mads Frokjaer robbed Luke Ayling of the ball and it dropped for substitute Emil Riis. The fellow Dane took one touch, composed himself and drilled the ball into the bottom right corner to clinch back-to-back victories.

“Delighted with the performance, the application against a good side,” said the PNE boss. “Boro in possession are a very, very dangerous team and if you let them, or if you don't fully commit, they can cause you so many problems. We had to show all sides of our game today. We had a couple of moments where we weren't brave enough. Sometimes it's uncomfortable to put yourselves in positions you're not familiar with on the pitch, but if it's to stop them playing it's fantastic.

“We did get better and better in the first half and then I'd always back us then, when we get the ball, to get moments of control and we did that second half. They started well second half but then I felt we got to grips with it. Then they scored a lovely counter. The crowd got behind them, gathered a bit of momentum and then our substitutes were fantastic again - giving us the control in the game and we were a lot stronger without the ball once again.

“And we had good moments then and good decisions with the ball. We're never going to be a one-dimensional team. A game's really simple if you break it down. You've either got the ball, they've got the ball, or the ball's out of play and you have to be able to restart. You can't focus on one over the other. You have to prepare a team in each of those phases.

“Really pleased, delighted, some big individual performances and a good team performance. We've shown it against big sides all season. It's like the Watford performance. Great performance, delighted with it, but everyone was talking about it because we won. Everyone was saying how good it was because we won. We've been better than that this season, and away from home we've been better than that.

“But when the results then match the performance, people talk about it a bit more. That midweek game wasn't a one-off, that's what I said to the players. Our levels have been very, very good, but we've either had moments where we've been wasteful at one end - first half Watford - and then we've had other moments where either decisions went against us in that phase, or we were sloppy defending our own box. And, even though we might have only given the opposition a couple of efforts on target, they were coming away with a point.”

Thordarson is a player Heckingbottom has continually spoken highly of this season - the Iceland international is someone he feels has potential to be a top Championship midfielder. His opening goal was an enjoyable moment for the PNE boss.

“Yeah, great goal,” said Heckingbottom. “I was screaming at him to play a bit further forward as well. He's got that, he's got real good ability. You can see that he has. We believe in him and as I said before, he's getting to grips with the pace, the intensity, the physicality of the Championship. #

“It's pointless even saying the English game; it's not. The Championship is one on its own really as a football league across the world, so it takes a bit of adapting to. It's great for everyone to see what he is and what moments he has got. All the other bits of his game are coming along nicely as well.”

“Our subs were fantastic today.”

It was Riis - introduced off the bench 17 minutes from time - who kept a cool head and showed clinical edge to strike the winning goal home. There were moans inside Deepdale when he replaced midweek match winner Milutin Osmajic; Riis pointed to his ears after scoring. Heckingbottom wasn’t a fan of that reaction but over the moon to see his striker step up.

“Yeah, listen that's ridiculous, the groans, when Milly’s running himself into the ground game after game and we've got someone like that who's scored that many goals for the club on the bench,” said Heckingbottom. “We want to be an intense, aggressive team and our subs were fantastic today.

“One of the reasons they're fantastic is because it means we can keep our intensity levels as a group, so that the 11 players on the pitch at any one time... our levels don't drop and make it easy for the opposition. When people's physicals do drop, we expect our subs to come on and minimum, minimum, raise the physical intensity.”