'We know' - Stuart McCall leads the reaction to Preston North End beating Oxford United
PNE ran out 2-1 winners at Oxford United on Saturday afternoon
Preston North End assistant boss Stuart McCall was delighted to take three hard earned points away from Oxford United.
The Lilywhites hit the front on 26 minutes through Jordan Storey and doubled their lead, shortly after half-time, through on-loan striker Daniel Jebbison - who netted his fifth of the campaign and fourth in six matches.
Brian De Keersmaecker restored hope for the hosts with a swift response, as the Belgian let fly from just inside the box and rifled past Daniel Iversen. North End held out, though, to take three big points back up the road.
Post-match, McCall stepped in for post-match duty with manager Paul Heckingbottom serving the first of his three-game touchline ban. He admitted the performance wasn’t vintage but felt it was an impressive effort to see off an aggressive Oxford outfit.
He said: “I think the result was better than the performance. It was a great win; a patchy performance. The big teams that have come here, they've all found it difficult. You know what you're going to be up against, the balls in your box, set pieces long throws from anywhere 40 yards from your goal.
“You've got to stand up and be counted. I thought the second goal was really nice and that's the football we can play. But yes, delighted with the result. Probably today, out of any game we've played, we probably needed Liam Lindsay more than anything with all the balls that were coming in the box.
”That's one thing he does, he gets his head on it. With the mixture of the centre-halves winning and Dan coming and collecting it, I think we did quite well defending the set-pieces. I thought we were fine for a little bit, then we got pegged back and they wanted to start throwing the balls into the box.
”But we got a good goal, good cross, deep cross from T, Jordan round the back - and he should do that more often because he's good in the air. We knew what was coming and we gave probably three or four really needless silly free kicks away as well. Having said that, if you're clearing the ball for throw-ins, it's coming in with the same accuracy.
”You've got to stand up and you've got to put your head on it, and it's not supposed to be the first contact, it's what's landing around the edge of the box. It's vital for your wing-backs and your midfielders to land on that and get clearances and blocks in, which I thought, again, we did well today.
“We were saying at half-time, you have to do all the dirty bits of football... win your second balls, get your blocks and get your tackles and all that. That's a given, that's what you've got to do, but I felt we could have played better with the ball. The (second) goal was a reason why we should get it down a little bit more.
“We’ve got good footballers in the team and that was highlighted with the second goal, a really lovely one-two ball, across and Jebbo was in. He put another shift in today and he gets his rewards with the winning goal. As I say, delighted that we got the three points, but we still know we can be better.”