What Graham Alexander told his Preston players after West Brom draw as he gives Andy Moran verdict

Graham Alexander told his Preston North End players to soak in the atmosphere from the Deepdale faithful after their hard-earned draw with West Brom.

Preston finally managed to stop the rot and get their first point on the board under Alexander with a battling 1-1 stalemate against 5th-placed West Brom on Saturday, a game they had done more than enough to win.

Though a lack of composure and cutting-edge in the box may have cost a victory, no North End player can be criticised for the remarkable effort they put in, with aggressive pressing and brave defending from every single player.

The Gentry appreciated the effort with boisterous support throughout and were rewarded with something to celebrate when Andrew Hughes bundled in the opener. Sadly, the lead lasted just four minutes before Aune Heggebo’s leveller, but the fans still gave the players a rousing reception at the full-time whistle.

The manager appreciated the support and told the players to really take it in.

“Yeah I do,” Alexander told The Post when asked if he felt the fans believed in his side during the game after writing in his programme notes he wanted to turn ‘doubters into believers.’

“I said to the players afterwards, just feel that. That's from a 1-1 draw.

“It's not the result that made the supporters think like that, it's they can see, they're not stupid, they can see effort, they can see commitment, they can see a team that's proud to represent Preston North End.

“That's the thing we've got to carry forward. Without that beating heart, we won't be enough.

“For me, the validation for how we want to go about things came not from the result today, even though it's a positive result, it came from the response of the supporters at the end of the game and all the way through the game.

“Because they were part of the defiance that we had today and we have to build on it.”

Graham Alexander gives verdict on Andy Moran’s performance

Those same fans have been desperate for midfielder Andy Moran to get a chance in the team and the Irishman came on at half-time for Alfie Devine, who was struggling with a calf issue.

Alexander was pleased with Moran’s display and revealed he was close to starting the game outright.

He said: “I thought he did really well. I think he was unlucky not to start.

“He was in my thoughts definitely yesterday and so was Jusef [Erabi] because he'd scored a couple of goals in a [practice] game this week, so I thought he was unlucky not to start.

“But that's where we have to get to, we have to get to where I'm making difficult decisions. The team can't pick itself.

“We have to get to a moment where I have four, five, six really tough decisions every week. That's when we know we've got a competitive squad and I've felt that this week. Certainly how the players have trained, and certainly the quality we showed.

“I just said: 'Lads, the biggest thing in football is taking what you're doing on a training pitch and putting it into practise in a game scenario,' and they 100 per cent did that today.”