Ryan Lowe over the moon as Preston North End 'overpower' Blackburn Rovers to win Lancashire derby

Preston North End manager Ryan Lowe hailed the spirit of his squad as the Lilywhites beat Blackburn Rovers 1-2 on Friday night.

Liam Lindsay was the match winner at Ewood Park, with his 90th minute bullet header - in front of six thousand away fans - seeing PNE take all three points. North End hit the front in style first half through captain Alan Browne, but Sam Szmodics levelled proceedings on 49 minutes.

Preston looked to be heading for a share of the spoils, but after sustaining pressure in the final third Lindsay arrived to power home from Ben Whiteman's delicate cross. North End picked up another memorable win at Ewood and Lowe gave full credit to his players post-match.

"When you win derbies you are always going to enjoy it," said Lowe. "I thought the lads were fantastic. We had to deal with their pressure and how they play, because they're a good football team but we withstood it. The lads showed that real character, desire and never-say-die attitude and to score the winner, in stoppage time, in front of our fans, you probably can't get much better. You cannot script anything in the Championship, but what I can script is that those players give us everything. They are fantastic.

"We are a strong, resolute team that can overpower some teams. I think you see that with the goal. They give us everything and as long as they keep doing that, we will win a lot of games. We spoke to the lads at half time about their intricate changes and not to follow rotations, but be aware of a man in front or behind of you. You are dealing with some good players and Szmodics is a threat with those runs.

"To bounce back in the way we did was massively pleasing. I think it is our only derby this season. For me, the staff and the players to send the fans home happy in this derby is important for us and them. It was end-to-end. We are not just in the game to sit in there and take a point. We want to go for it and win games of football. There will be times we have to sit in but tonight - no disrespect to Blackburn - we felt we could go and win.

"We brought Mads on down the right side and Robbie down the left. The message was to get some crosses into the box. Lo and behold it's Whitey who leaves a nice little feeler in there, for Liam who had stayed up for a third or fourth phase from the corner. We kept it alive and the strength and power has seen him beat their man to the ball. And the power on the header is just too much for the 'keeper."