Graham Alexander ‘chuffed’ as Preston end winless streak with Southampton upset

Graham Alexander was thrilled with a “deserved” victory after seeing Preston beat high-flying Southampton 1-0 at Deepdale.

Jordan Thompson’s stunning 33rd-minute volley proved to be enough for Alexander to earn his first win as North End manager since replacing Paul Heckingbottom in September.

He said: “I’m chuffed for the players. I think they deserved it. I know it’s not always apparent but they have worked hard.

“They’re trying to believe in what we’re trying to do but they need that validation of performances and results to get that confidence and I think today will give us that.

“Going forward, we’ve got two weeks to work more of the same, continuing what we’ve done this week. I’m so pleased for the players and I’m so pleased for the supporters because Deepdale was amazing today.

“We probably ran out of a bit of juice after a tough week this week and started to sit back but they forced us back.

“I think we should have taken the lead a couple of times before that to be fair. I thought we were superb in the first half.

“That’s the kind of performance we try to generate from the off, go up against any opponent and not take a step backwards.”

Tonda Eckert was left frustrated with the way his Southampton team started the match and admitted they need to improve against opponents lower in the Championship table.

The Saints sit in seventh, just five points off automatic promotion despite their four-point deduction at the start of the season, but have dropped points against Bolton, Lincoln, Watford and Wrexham, who lie in the bottom half of the league.

The Southampton head coach said: “In order to win, especially against teams near the bottom, it’s important that you start a game strong, that you come out of the tunnel strong, and find a good way into the game and we didn’t do that.

“We wasted one half today. I still think there was enough in the second half to win it but overall, over the 90 minutes, I think we were a lot better than we showed.

“Today, we were more than aggressive enough against the ball but we never really got a foot into the game in the first half. It also comes down to some moments on the ball where they just keep jumping and we play straight into the pressure.

“I think there were not enough moments in the first half. We knew that the pressure was going to come from them and we just needed to make sure we went a little bit longer and we invited them to keep playing direct.

“We just needed to find the solutions but overall it was disappointing.”

Despite the win, Preston remain at the bottom of the table, seven points away from safety.