Jon Parkin admitted his relief as he opened his Preston account with the only goal of the game against Doncaster.
Striker thrilled to get off the mark for Preston
Jon Parkin admitted his relief as he opened his Preston account with the only goal of the game against Doncaster.
Parkin headed home the winner six minutes after coming on as a substitute to score his first goal in a Preston shirt.
The win moves the Lancashire club up to seventh in the Championship table.
"It's a massive relief to get the first one," he said.
"Obviously, the longer you go without scoring, you wonder when it will come. It has been weighing me down a bit, though I tried to make out that it hasn't."
Preston manager Alan Irvine was full of praise for his match-winner, adding that he hopes Parkin would now kick on and add to his tally.
"He has come close to scoring on many occasions, as everyone knows," he said.
"Sometimes keepers have made very good saves against him, sometimes he has been unfortunate with the woodwork, and at other times he has been unable to finish it.
"I am delighted for him, and hopefully that's the start now. It was a terrific header. It was a very good goal when it did come."
He added: "It looked like the goal wasn't going to come. We had a lot of possession, without enough penetration.
Frustrating
"At times we moved the ball well, and at other times we picked the wrong path.
"It was all a bit frustrating, because when teams are playing with that sort of formation against you, you have to go down the side rather than go through them.
"We got a win in the end. Sometimes you have to grind wins out, and we managed to do that on this particular occasion.
Doncaster manager Sean O'Driscoll was left disappointed by the result, adding that it was their worst attacking display of a season that has yielded a league-worst 10 goals.
"This is probably the first game of the season where we have not created many chances," he said.
"In every game until now we have created loads of chances. Our problem has been not putting the ball in the back of the net.
"But in this game I thought we were going to get away with a goalless draw, which we would have been pleased with.
"Preston were the more likely, I felt, to get a goal, but we defended really well and had enough possession to create more openings.
"I thought we held our own throughout the game. It was nip and tuck. Our final-third play wasn't good enough, but up until today it has been first-class, and we have had nowhere to stick the ball in the back of the net."
