"You've got to celebrate it with your own" - Preston North End's Brad Potts didn't want to waste celebration on Blackpool fans

Potts’ thunderous strike gave North End the lead inside 12 minutes directly in front of the travelling away fans and the 28-year-old couldn’t contain his emotions.

Ben Whiteman extended Preston’s lead before half time, with Tom Cannon making it three and Jerry Yates scoring a late consolation for the visitors.

“It’s a crazy feeling when you score,” he said. “It just happened to be in front of the Blackpool fans and I think it’s that much of a big moment that the emotions were all over the place.

“We just wanted to put on a good performance, to get the three points and send the fans home happy, but to score as well, to contribute in that way, I’m absolutely over the moon.”

“I know I need to be adding goals to my game. I read the flight of the ball, and I knew I wasn’t going to get it at the back stick, so I just hung back and when it came out to me I was just thinking ‘hit the target’ and thankfully it went in. I don’t think I could’ve hit it much better than that.”

His celebration was far from subdued, sending Deepdale and over 16,500 North End fans into a frenzy of emotion. Blue and white shirts, scarves, flags and balloons flickered around the stadium as Preston took the lead and Potts was making the most of it.

He set off immediately towards the Blackpool fans near to where he netted the opener, before seemingly coming to his senses and sharing the joy with the PNE fans as he ran along the Invincibles Pavilion.

He said: “I just thought I was kind of wasting it celebrating in front of the Blackpool fans because you’ve got to enjoy it with your own haven’t you?

“The fans are like a 12th man when they get behind us and it showed today,” said the Cumbrian. “Everyone, to a man, wanted to send them (the fans) home happy today and we’ve done that, and we appreciate all the support.

“That was probably why the referee was on my case as well.”

“It was a good vibe in the dressing room, good feeling, it was amazing to see all the fans singing and so happy at the end and we just carried that into the dressing room,” he said.

“This sets us up for a good week.”