'Emotional one' - Preston North End man reveals what he said in dressing room after 2-2 draw at Bristol City

Preston North End captain Ben Whiteman was proud of the team’s performance on the final day of the season at Bristol City.

The Lilywhites headed into the Ashton Gate clash at risk of relegation and went up against a side looking to secure a play-off place. But, Paul Heckingbottom’s men were two goals to the good after an hour - thanks to strikes from Emil Riis and Milutin Osmajic.

Bristol City looked on the ropes but pulled a goal back through Ross McCrorie, who then equalised just five minutes later. A share of the spoils was the end result and score lines elsewhere went in Preston’s favour anyway, but North End’s number four was over the moon to get the job done.

“Yeah, quite a lot of relief,” said Whiteman. “I think if you’d looked at us two months ago, we’d have been looking to kick on and finish the season strongly. Plymouth, we created numerous chances but couldn’t put the ball in the net. There's a lot of emotion around this weekend; I don't think people realised how big it was for us, because the past two weeks haven't been good enough.

“I think everyone looking in from the outside probably thought we were going to be the ones to go down, but credit to the lads today. Two-nil up again and two sloppy goals conceded - we're repeating ourselves. But we’ve got to look forward to the summer now because we've sort of got over the line. If you go back to the FA Cup game, I don't think anyone would have thought we'd have been in this situation.

“Complacency from us probably let us get to this position and then there's a lot of pressure riding on the Hull game, and the Plymouth game. Obviously, shocking decisions, but what can you do then? Emotion in the Plymouth game again; couldn't seem to score. As I mentioned, there's a lot of pressure when you're going into this game. Especially in camp, we felt it, there's no denying that. We put ourselves in this position and today we got ourselves out. It's all credit to the boys for what they did... massively turned up today.”

“It’s going to be a massively different PNE...”

Whiteman chatted to the media after manager Heckingbottom - who had explained how the skipper had spoken in the dressing room about the players who will be leaving this summer. Out-of-contract duo Ryan Ledson and Emil Riis look likely to be two of those; the pair have racked up hundreds of appearances combined, and were strong on the day at Ashton Gate. Whiteman admitted there was emotion around saying goodbye, but also stressed how important the upcoming transfer window will be.

“I just sat down there with the lads in the dressing room... it's an emotional one because we've not really been able to say bye to them in the right way,” said Whiteman. “It's because we've not been good enough over the past month or so, and we're having to call on a lot of people that aren't going to be here next year. A lot of lads that have been here for numerous years, loan lads, we’ve not been able to thank them for their services.

“So yeah, credit to them for outstanding professionalism today. It's going to be a massively different Preston North End come next season, I'm sure, because there's lots of players leaving. We've got to look forward to that and we've obviously got to get it right. You've got to have a good core. I think if you ask every loan lad that's been here over the past two or three years, you understand how good the core is.

“But, yeah, we need help.. there's no denying that. We need some players to come in and help us. If you look at the benches over, probably the past month really, we’ve been leaning on young lads. Sam's back today, Ledo's back today, we have been having too many injuries as well - there's no doubt about that. That's sort of played into it a bit but again, we've got ourselves out of it.”

Your next PNE read: Paul Heckingbottom reaction post-Bristol City