Alan Sheehan impressed by Swansea’s fight in goalless draw at Preston North End

Alan Sheehan expressed pride in how Swansea “stood up to the fight” in the 0-0 draw at Preston as they made it four points in two games since he took caretaker charge.

After sacking Luke Williams having lost seven out of nine Championship matches, the Swans recorded a 3-0 home win over Blackburn in their first outing under Sheehan 10 days ago.

Alan Sheehan

And following the Preston match, Sheehan, who is to remain as caretaker boss for the next three fixtures through to the international break, said: “Right now I’m very, very proud.

“Back-to-back clean sheets. Today, when you come away from home, you’ve got to be tough, you have to show grit, and I think overall it’s a good point, it really is.

“It’s tough to play here. I played here about 18 years ago, and every time I’ve been, I’ve never had an easy game. That was the message, we’re coming up here to have a battle.

“The way we started the game I was very pleased. Then momentum changed, but we still threw punches within the contest.

“Preston are a big, physical team, they were getting bigger with every substitute, and we were getting smaller. I was wary of that, especially defending set pieces.

“So credit to the lads, I thought they stood up to the fight and I’m really proud of them tonight.

“It was a very good attacking performance against Blackburn, we come here today and I think we have to be proud of the defensive display. The lads left it all out there and that’s all you can ask. I think it’s important we added to our points tally tonight in whatever way we could.”

Swansea are now 10 points clear of the relegation zone in 16th, a place and two points behind Preston.

While Swansea substitute Eom Ji-sung went close with a free-kick, it was the hosts who had most of the chances, with Milutin Osmajic unable to make the most of some good opportunities.

One came early in the second half as he dragged a finish wide, and he was also thwarted late on by Lawrence Vigouroux, who had made a fine double save to deny Brad Potts and Sam Greenwood not long before.

The contest came three days on from North End beating Burnley 3-0 at the same venue to move into the FA Cup quarter finals – in which they will host Aston Villa – for the first time since 1966.

Paul Heckingbottom

Preston boss Paul Heckingbottom said: “We’ve had too many games where we’ve been the best team and not got the three points, so definitely (frustrated), but the message to the players after the game was how proud I was of them.

“We knew Swansea are high energy, and they’d had 10 days and we were off the back of a big game at the weekend.

“We had to make sure we were guarding against it being a flat performance from us, and make sure we provide energy, and really try to force the game and make it difficult for them, and to a man we did that.

“We should have won the game, we created more than enough. Really good chances – it was just not our day.

“It’s unfortunate, the players deserved a lot more, but my message was how proud I was of them.”

It was a 16th draw of the season for Preston, leaving them nine points outside the play-offs, and Heckingbottom added: “We’ve got to go on a hell of a run.

“Performance-wise, we’ve been like that. We’ve not been able to get three points enough. That’s the thing that has to change.”

READ MORE: Swansea keep Preston North End at bay to continue progress under interim boss Alan Sheehan