Win keeps Preston's play-off flame burning brightly: North End supporter John Smith reflects on victory over Latics

Although the match was not a thriller the result had many of the fans moon walking and doing a few glides backwards on the dance floors of the hostelries in Preston following their return from the lunch time kick off.

In the first half we played some of the best football I have seen us play this season and we looked full of running and very confident moving the ball around.

It was one of our many controlled and slick passing moves which gained the early breakthrough when Ben Pearson threaded the ball through for Daniel Johnson to play in Tom Barkhuizen for an easy tap in

Pearson put in another man-of-the-match performance but there were also quality displays from Ben Davies and Patrick Bauer while the recalled Sean Maguire also looked very lively.

The Irish Costa was unlucky not to score with a glancing header one of numerous opportunities spurned in a first half we completely dominated although we seemed to take our foot off the gas slightly for the last 10 minutes of it.

Before the majority of the fans had time to properly digest their half-time pies our bellies were being shaken up again as another slick passing move was finished off by Johnson to double our advantage.

This delighted the raucous away following who loudly chanted their wishes for wanting to play Wigan every week.However some were left to rue these words minutes later when Wigan pulled a goal back.

This lifted the home crowd and also changed the dynamics of the game for the last half hour as we were forced onto the back foot as Wigan began to ask questions of our defence. However, we held firm to win a hard fought important three points which keeps the play off flame burning brightly.