Paul Heckingbottom impressed with Preston’s display in win at Norwich

Preston manager Paul Heckingbottom felt his side had been rewarded for a top-quality performance after beating Norwich 1-0 at Carrow Road.

The visitors moved to within five points of the Championship play-off places after comfortably seeing off a side who would have gone into the top six themselves with a victory.

Milutin Osmajic struck the winner in the fifth minute.

“I thought it was a top-drawer performance from the whole group,” said Heckingbottom.

“This is a tough place to come to and to get anything from a game here you have to get a lot of things right and we certainly did that.

“We were good with the ball and really good without it too, with everyone contributing.

“Probably the only negative of the performance was that we missed a number of good chances and could have won more comfortably, but when you’re saying that as a visiting manager here you know you have played well.”

The only downside of the evening for North End was a serious injury to midfielder Duane Holmes, who was stretchered off in the first half after a crunching challenge from Shane Duffy.

Heckingbottom said: “Duane has gone to hospital and it doesn’t look good. It’s potentially a break but we don’t know yet.

“It wasn’t a good challenge – the type you don’t see so much now – and it put a dampener on a fantastic victory.”

Norwich struggled to create chances all evening, with Borja Sainz having a shot on the turn deflected just wide late on.

Canaries head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup said he could understand the boos at the end.

“The fans were not satisfied and the players were not satisfied either. They tried their best but were not good enough tonight,” he said.

“I thought it was an even game, although they had the better chances. We were expecting a tough game and that is exactly what we got. Preston were physical and tough in all the duels and I got the feeling it was not even with the decisions taken.

“I think when we play well we look like a team who can push for the play-offs, and I still think we can do that. But when our level drops it can be like it was tonight.”