A bruised and battered Tom Clarke reinforced the importance of next Saturday’s trip to Sheffield United after North End could only record a point against Norwich City this afternoon.
Clarke, who played the last half hour or so of the game with a tight hamstring was a frustrated figure after the game as North End did everything but score this afternoon.
Paul Gallagher hit the woodwork in the first half whilst Josh Harrop and Billy Bodin also went close in the second half.
There was to be no way through though for North End, and the skipper credited North End’s persistence despite not finding the net this afternoon.
“That just sums up this league - fine margins.” On PNE being so near yet so far to three points.
“It still sets us up nicely for Sheffield United with a number of the scores today going our way.
“There’s still only two points in it but it’s frustrating that we haven’t capitalised on that and got the three points we deserved, but we’re still in there and we have to bounce back for another game with Sheffield United. There’s two points in it with two games so who knows.”
On his tight hamstring he enforced: “It’s frustrating how it happens. It’s sort of tightened up at the top - luckily, we had a lot of energy to run around me and help me out and cover me. The lads did brilliantly - on a hot day - we pressed well and pushed so to not get the result is frustrating because we deserved it.”
Clarke also took the time in his interview to appreciate the noise levels from the fans today, and issued a rallying cry that more of the same is needed heading in to the final two games of the campaign.
“We go there with confidence,” continued the skipper. “we’ve played really well today and we know our strikers will take them chances on another day.
“We go again on Saturday and hopefully keep producing because there’s always a team in there who get there late on.
“We’ve worked really hard and the lads have worked superb this season, the lads have done brilliantly to get to where we are and we need everybody now including the fans who were brilliant today.
“We’re just disappointed we couldn’t get that win for them to push us on. As soon as you came out, even for the warm up the fans were brilliant and they came out in numbers and we’re going to need that for that last two definitely.”