Nigel Pearson praised Rob Atkinson's character to bounce back from a difficult game against Birmingham to be Bristol City's matchwinner.
The Robins ended their winless streak with a much-needed three points against a Preston side who proved difficult to break down for long periods. They had conceded just six league goals heading into the game.
After a drab opening 45 minutes, Atkinson superbly headed home Mark Sykes' delivery 10 minutes into the second half to break the deadlock. Preston looked to have salvaged a point when Aaron Hughes smashed in an equaliser from a set-piece eight minutes before the end.
But Atkinson raised the roof with stoppage time to play when he latched onto Alex Scott's brilliant corner delivery which moved City up to 11th in the Championship and three points adrift of the play-offs.
Pearson said after the game: "Look, he needed a response like anybody else. The important thing in regard to Rob is that he’s very capable but sometimes he doesn’t always show it, so he needed a good game tonight so it’s good for him to score the two goals but more importantly for me he showed a response after the weekend which is good.
"It remains a bit of a frustration, I don’t take any pleasure from having a go at players. Players need to be proactive themselves and he’s scored the goals today that have allowed us to win the game.
"But for me, more importantly, he was keen to play well and defend well and that’s what he’s in the team for.
"What he (Atkinson) brings in possession is something else, but first and foremost he was a part of a backline that showed a lot of commitment tonight. I thought Timm did okay for his first full game.
"I thought Zak was very good too, so we needed to get ourselves back into winning ways and that’s the most important thing tonight.
"I’m not going to spend all night now talking about how positive and how rosy things are because that performance at the weekend was too far away from what we’re about and tonight was more like it.
"Rob needed to respond but the players collectively yeah, we’re a team so when players don’t have a good day they can still contribute to the team.”
Pearson admitted there haven't been many "two-way conversations this week" after making four changes to his side including dropping captain Dan Bentley for Max O'Leary. When asked whether he has forgiven his players following Saturday's defeat, he responded: "Forgiven them? It’s not about forgiveness.
“It’s frustrating that we need to have a response, that’s what it is. Hopefully the players will have got something out of tonight that is more than just the win. They’ll understand what’s required every time we play.
"I imagine we’re in the top half and now people look at it in a different way, possibly, I don’t know. But we’ve allowed certain games to pass us by that is frustrating, so we’ll see what happens at the weekend.
"But I’m really pleased for the players tonight and I’m very pleased for our fans, but more importantly we got back to winning ways which we needed to do.”
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