North End were ruthless in 4-1 victory over Blackburn, says Preston supporter Tim Mercer

What a contrast to Saturday and the noon kick-off in the snow! North End ruthlessly tore their hosts apart like a pack of hungry wolves with Blackburn playing the part of the sacrificial lambs.

Yes, at least one or two of the goals were as a result of poor defending, especially Ched Evans’ first and Preston’s second that came about by Rovers trying to play out from the back, but that takes nothing away from a magnificent performance by all in the team in our beloved away shirt. ‘Yellows, Yellows’ rang out from the 4,000 plus around me in a way I’ve not heard for a long time; none more so than the ‘Team goal’ that made it 4-1.

On paper it goes down to Ben Whiteman with an assist from Daniel Johnson, but that does not do it justice.

Ben Woodburn, who had calmly opened the scoring in the first half by converting a nicely weighted pass from Evans, hassled and harried out on the left wing to ensure the loose ball fell to Álvaro Fernández. Fernández charged down the wing towards the byline, beating his marker with a strong ball pulled back towards Johnson. Johnson appeared to have 360 degree vision as his deft touch bamboozled the Blackburn defence and put just the right amount of weight on the ball for the onrushing Whiteman to smash it home.

Cue pandemonium in the away stand and amongst the players immediately below us.

All this after the unexpected news at the start of a raft of injuries to six senior players that meant Ryan Lowe was forced to name four academy players for the bench with only a few hours of first team experience between them.

With the game won, it gave Lowe the luxury of bringing them on in the dying minutes to get a feel of what it can be like at senior level and remind them of the passion and commitment

needed when stepping up.

As for player of the match, this fan could name more than one in despatches that would include Johnson back to doing what we know he can do, Greg Cunningham’s peach of cross for Evans’ second and North End’s third, Ryan Ledson for his controlled aggression in midfield and Woodburn for his goal and all round forward play.

However, in my view it has to go to Evans, and not just for his brace.

His touches, intelligence and overall game was just too much for the hosts to cope with and meant this time I skated back to my car on the ice and snow all around the ground with a warm song in the heart … ‘Yellows, Yellows’.