Burnley fell to defeat at Preston with the three points virtually ensuring they will stay up with the defeat almost certainly condemning us to a final place outside the top six.
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Alan Irvine was obviously the happier of the two managers after the game and he realised the importance of yet another win for North End. "It was huge, a really important three points, three points that we badly needed, and it was obviously a tough game, a game that could have gone either way but I'm delighted that we go the three points," he said.
"It was a great start and we had a couple of brilliant chances to actually build on that and put the game out of sight but we missed them and that made it a lot more difficult for us. Tamas Priskin should have had a hat trick. We were hoping he would have put those away and Chris Brown had the chance to put one of them away on the rebound. I'm delighted he's got his first goal and you saw what it meant to him and he was obviously really pleased with it. It was a great finish and probably the hardest of his chances.
"When you've had good chances and not taken them you always fear that you make some kind of mistake at the back and they can get a goal and obviously I do feel that we did make a mistake at the back in terms of how we defended the corner and then we got done by a deflection as well that took it away from Andy Lonergan.
"I said to the players at half time that it was a mix of some very good stuff and some very poor play and I wanted to repeat the good stuff but we had to tighten up, the game was far too open and we were playing on far too big a pitch. We were far too stretched and we needed to be better than that.
"We did that in the second half and for the second goal we did really well to keep the ball alive in the box to get it in. Chris Brown has got a few goals now and that will give him confidence and get him moving in the right direction. You want your strikers scoring goals, you'll take goals from anywhere but you certainly want your strikers to be your leading goal scorers.
"We are on a good run at home and we want to keep that going, it is great to be at 50 points but it's not enough, I don't believe that it will be enough at the end of the season so we will now go for the 54 points that I set initially and will then give the lads something else to aim for."
It was another disappointing day for the Clarets and another day of poor goals given away and manager Owen Coyle stressed that this has to stop. "I don't think we should be coming home with nothing and I would commend the spirit of both sides," he said. "But there is no getting away from the fact that we are giving away such soft goals.
"Coming into the club we could see there were problems and we have tried to paper over the cracks. To an extent we have done that and kept ourselves up there. I have identified what we need to do to progress the club on to the level we are looking for on a consistent basis and there was a lot within the game to be pleased about. But the bottom line is we have conceded soft, soft goals.
"I can accept if someone scores a real footballing goal, but when you have three or four opportunities to clear a ball and you are not doing it, that tells me something needs to be sorted out.
"It was a big ask for the lads to come back but we did by playing some fantastic football, especially in the first half. In the second half we started really well but again we shot ourselves sin the foot and we are certainly making a habit of gifting goals. We had three or four opportunities to clear the ball and paid a heavy price after they got a lucky bounce."
Looking forward he added: "There are six games to go now and to be honest we would have to win a minimum of five and probably all six. Having said that, the players have shown when they are tuned in and not giving away soft goals that they are capable of doing that."
He ended by commenting on the red card that will now keep Clarke Carlisle out of the games against Barnsley, Norwich and Sheffield United. "I was thirty yards away and I really don't think there was any malice in the tackle. I spoke to the referee and told him I thought it could have been dealt with better. Clarke did lunge for the ball but I probably thought a yellow would have sufficed. I will need to see it again before we think about an appeal." |
