Preston North End striker Emil Riis felt his side were up to the mental challenge against Norwich City

PNE were quickly behind in the game when Josh Sargent have the hosts the lead in the opening minutes but it was the Dane that got his side back level, heading in Robbie Brady’s cross.

Riis then extended PNE’s lead in the second half, slotting home Alvaro Fernandez’s cross before the Lilywhites were pegged back with just over 10 minutes to go as Gabriel Sara fired the ball into the roof of the net.

There was still time for more in the action-packed 90 minutes as Troy Parrott’s deflected effort from a tight angle snuck in at the near post giving Ryan Lowe’s side the win.

Riis scored his second and third goals in the space of htree days after scoring the winning goal against West Brom in midweek – in his eyes ending his trouble in front of goals.

PNE have been goal shy this season but were also forced to fight illness as a number of their players were sick before and during the game, with Brad Potts withdrawn after doing so in the warm up.

Riis said: "We knew it was going to be a tough place to come, then we went 1-0 down. They had a lot of possession and they're a good team but we showed some good spirit.

"There were some good setups for me to just put it into the net. We did well. It was tough coming into the game, it's not nice when some of the players were not feeling too well.

"We did well to fight through it and it was a team performance today, definitely. You start to get some thoughts when you go 1-0 down and we haven't scored a lot of goals this year so it's definitely a mental challenge but we did well today and came back in a good way.”

The win on Saturday, and the seven points North End have picked up over the course of the last week, has seen their league position improve.

They are now eighth in the league and are just two points off the play-off places – five off Norwich in the second automatic promotion place.

Riis admits his side want to be amongst the big hitters in the league and is hoping the flow of goals will help in that regard.

He said: “We want to be pushing for the play-offs so if we can have some good games now we can keep pushing. We scored a lot of goals compared to what we normally do so if we can keep that up and keep finding ways to score then it's looking good.

“To beat one of the sides who were in the Premier League last season and are up there still, it's great to get the win. Who knows what's going to happen.

“I just want to keep playing, it's good to have a lot of games. We just want to continue that form and get out there as soon as possible to show we can do it again.”