On any other night Richard Chaplow's two goal show may have easily won him the man of the match award in a win at Deepdale but there was one player who was even ahead of Chaplow on Tuesday night, Callum Davidson.

The Scottish full-back was playing his last game for the Lilywhites before a two-game suspension kicks in and he put in a typically blood and thunder display to win the hearts of the Preston North End fans. Davidson looked a picture with his head wrapped in a bandage and he later received four stitches in his head wound but Callum's display was only continued in the second half after his team-mates demanded that he stay on the field.

"I thought that he was going to have to come off," manager Alan Irvine admitted.

"I was a bit anxious when he had to go and get the stitches and we went down to ten men but all credit to the lads for getting themselves organised and doing the jobs while Callum was off.

"It seemed a long long time that we only had ten men and then of course it opened up again and I went into the dressing room at half-time to chat with the lads and they made it very very clear that he wasn't coming off and that was fine by me.

"He's only had four stitches so it's a big fuss about nothing."

Irvine did reserve some credit for goalscorer Chaplow, the former Burnley man grabbed his first and second goals for the club in a dynamic first half display and he could have made it a hat-trick just before limping off with a tight hamstring.

Irvine said: Chappy did really well, I spoke to him before the game and I said to him that his asset is his running, with the ball and without the ball and it was very important that he did that. We want him to get on the ball and make passes but when you have got the energy that he has then you have got to use that because it is very difficult for people to stick with him.

"He's got a tight hamstring, he'd already indicated that he needed to come off and we were already getting the substitute ready. I don't think it was anything to do with him missing the chance, it was just a little bit quicker at him than he expected it to be.

"I don't think it's an injury as such, I think it was just getting tight and it's probably the effect of playing his first game for some time at Watford and then having another game so soon. He's been as stiff as a board since the Watford game and it was probably an accumulation of the demands of the two games."

The Gaffer has also denied claims that the Potters should have had a first-half penalty when Ricardo Fuller fell dramatically in the North End penalty box. TV replays later showed that the Jamaican had gone shoulder to shoulder with Liam Chilvers but Irvine said that he saw nothing wrong with the incident.

"I'm going to sound like a lot of other managers but I haven't seen it," smiled the North End boss.

"I've got to say that I didn't look at the referee in an anxious way or anything like that at the time, the feeling was that I didn't have to be worried.

"I will obviously watch it and if we have got away with it then it will be the first time for a while, we've been on the end of some fairly strange ones."