Preston North End boss Alex Neil on why Paul Gallagher stepped into a coaching role in the win at Huddersfield

Neil was without his usual right-hand man Frankie McAvoy who is self-isolating due to track and trace.

So he asked 36-year-old Gallagher to do a stint in the technical area with him and Steve Thompson.

Gallagher vacated his place among the substitutes, with Tom Bayliss drafted into the matchday squad.

PNE boss Neil said: “Gally is as a good as gold and an older, experienced player.

“We’ve not been playing him as much which is difficult for him because he wants to continue playing.

“I just feel the time is right for Ryan Ledson to step up and Ryan has been doing that.

“If Frankie had been with us, Gally would have been in the squad as a player.

“I just felt that with Frankie being absent, it was a good opportunity for Gally.

“I started his coaching journey over a year ago with our Under-16s who he has been working with and doing particularly well.

“This was a chance for him to sample what it is like with the first team.”

Neil felt North End were well worthy of their 2-1 win at the John Smith’s Stadium, which he described as a ‘heavyweight’ contest.

His side bounced back from letting in an early goal, Alan Browne scoring twice in two minutes early in the second half.

Said Neil: “The game was like two heavyweights going toe-to-toe.

“It wasn’t like we were passive or they were passive, trying to find a way into it.

“It was a proper me-versus-you battle, let’s see who gets the better of it – who can land that knockout blow.

“I thought we deserved to win, we had three or four chances towards the end to win it comfortably.

“Huddersfield were better than us for the first 10 or 15 minutes and then caused us a few problems at the end when they were down to 10 men.

“But during their good spell at the end, we had some of our best chances.

“The lads worked their socks off, Huddersfield are a good team.

“I still think there were some players who could play better than they did.”