Preston North End boss Ryan Lowe hails patience of his side after dominance against Reading and late winner

Tom Cannon opened the scoring in the second half before Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan scored direct from a flick on from a long throw in.

With North End in need of something special they found it as Brad Potts headed the ball in, two minutes into stoppage time at the end of the game.

It was no less than Lowe’s side deserved given that they had multiple clear chances to give themselves the lead throughout the game. It makes it three wins in a row for PNE and Lowe sensed his side wanted to keep their streak up.

“Fair play to the lads to stick in there and the desire to get back on the winning streak because obviously they clawed a goal back with a header,” he said.

"It’s a game that we felt we could win. We knew we’d be up against a tough team in Reading who are fighting for their life.

"Paul Ince has been hit hard with the points deduction and has done excellently with what he’s had to spend.

"We knew we’d have to come into a fight and I think we dealt with it really well early doors. We had some great opportunities, we didn’t out enough in the back of the net but to find a way with minutes to go is fantastic.”

With North End constantly looking for goals against an otherwise hapless Royals side, the day was in danger of becoming ‘on of those’ as the home side just couldn’t find a way to force the break through for the best part of the first hour.

Pegged back late on with a sucker punch from a side in the bottom three, PNE managed to find a way to win and bring themselves level with the play-off places.

Lowe said: “We needed to be patient because we did say we’d have large parts of the ball and create a lot of opportunities. In the first half we snatched at one or two things, in the second half we were a lot better, a little bit more calmness in our play.

"Just before their goal I thought the turnovers were too quick hence why I had to have a pop at one or two lads to just say to keep the ball.

"Lo and behold they get a long throw which we’ve worked on and we know they’re capable of doing that and a little bit of luck as it goes in off the shoulder.

"But to find a way, it’s a great ball from Robbie and I thought they handled our corners quite well. We tried to go short to Hughesy to keep it alive. Pottsy was there to barge it into the net.”