Irvine hails 'amazing' response

04 May 2009 09:18
Jon Parkin gave the hosts a first-half lead after seizing on a weak back-pass from Kaspars Gorkss, but an equaliser from former Preston forward Patrick Agyemang looked to have secured a draw for the visitors. However, Sean St Ledger's 74th-minute winner sealed three points for Irvine's men and saw them leapfrog Cardiff into sixth place - having scored just one goal more than the Welsh outfit. "I'm obviously delighted," Irvine said. "It's a fantastic achievement by the lads. "It's amazing to think how far we've come since this time last year, and it's also an amazing response to what was probably the lowest point I've had in my time here (a home defeat to Blackpool in April that looked to have ended their hopes of a top-six finish). "I don't know how many times it's been done for a team to win their last four games in the Championship, but it won't have happened many times." Preston now face Sheffield United in a two-legged play-off semi-final, and Irvine is away they face a tough test. "We are in form, but so are Sheffield United. Their form since the turn of the year has been fantastic," he added. "They will obviously be disappointed they haven't gone up automatically, but I don't think they will be too despondent, and they will feel they have got a great chance of going up through the play-offs. "I'm expecting a very competitive game. They are a very powerful side, and you have to be prepared to match that, but they've got quality as well, and it's important we don't think it's all about long throws and set pieces. "We'll need to play well to beat them, but if we play to our best, we can compete against anyone in the division. If we don't, and we are slightly off our game, then we will lose." Irvine admitted he was not confident about his team's chances going into the final day. The Lilywhites needed to rely on a slip-up from one of their rivals to claim a top-six berth, and were rewarded when Cardiff slumped to a surprising 1-0 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday. "To be honest, I didn't think we would get in," the Preston boss admitted. "I thought Burnley would win and Cardiff would get the result they needed. "I just wanted my team to focus on finishing the season on a high, and I thought if we won the game, we would have had a good season. We've now had a really good season, and it could become a great one." Meanwhile, QPR caretaker-boss Gareth Ainsworth admitted he was proud of his players' performance. Matt Connolly saw a header cleared off the line by Darren Carter in the dying seconds, and Ainsworth was delighted with his side's overall application. "Make no bones about it, we wanted to come here and win the game and finish the season well," he said. "I think attacking-wise it was probably one of our best displays. We played some really good stuff, and but for our final ball we could have scored a few more. "We had one cleared off the line in the last minute, and that's testament to how we went right to the end. "For once, it's been a defensive mistake (for Parkin's opener) that has let us down after we have been solid all season. It was a mix-up, and a bad goal to concede, but credit to Preston, they knew what they had to do and they did it. "Fair play to my lads, I thought they gave it a real go, and if we can take that forward into next season, we'll definitely win a lot more points than we have this year."

Source: Team_Talk