'I just thought' - What Paul Heckingbottom said on Preston North End's big 0-2 win at Southampton

Preston North End manager Paul Heckingbottom left St Mary’s over the moon after his side’s 2-0 win.

Lewis Dobbin broke the deadlock on 38 minutes, bundling home from close range after Alfie Devine’s low cross caused chaos. The Lilywhites kept Will Still’s side at arm’s length and landed the sucker-punch in second half injury time, when Mads Frokjaer slammed home the second after lovely combination play with Stefan Thordarson.

“I think if you could bottle that and take it away with you as an away performance, we'd do that,” said Heckingbottom, post-match. “We can be better with the ball, we know that, but we were terrific, created good chances and we were very, very good without the ball, particularly second half.

“Credit to everyone, one or two played with knocks today but you would have never thought that. That's why we needed to bring Jamal (Lewis) in when we did. Credit to Jamal as well, kept himself fit but not played for a long time, so we needed him to help the team.

“Yeah, really disciplined today. I just thought we got a lot of things right. Southampton have got good players and can have a lot of the ball, but I thought where we let them have possession was very, very good. It takes a lot of work and a lot of discipline for the players to execute that and they were fantastic.

“The boys who came on made a big, big difference with their energy. The boys who came in had to be patient, like Odel (Offiah) who's been playing well. Linds, it's credit to how they've been training and then they can step in and help us get the result. I think one thing we have been guaranteeing everyone is a level of performance.

“Away wins are good, the following has been great. Home and away, there's definitely more numbers, there's definitely more noise and like I say, it's great when you can send them home happy because it is a long journey. They'll enjoy it now going back. It's (unity) important.

“I keep going over old ground. It's really important. Forget what you've not got, stop comparing yourself to others and don't listen to all the nonsense like the haves and the have-nots. It's just about us and what we can do to give ourselves the best chance of winning.

“I've said it since day one when I came in here to the fans, you've got no reason to doubt these players whatsoever. They'll give everything to try and win. Away games are great and it's good to win away. We just want the same approach and the same belief in every game.

“Like I said, we were very aggressive against the ball today and then Southampton changed shape in the second half. We knew what they were doing with the subs but we managed to keep the ball in front of us rather than in behind us, in the dangerous space. When they did get in there, there were a lot of blocks, recovery runs and tackles.”

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