Alan Irvine saluted the team ethic following North End's fine 3-1 victory over Sheffield United.

The Lilywhites had to dig deep to see off a resilient Blades outfit as the unbeaten run stretched to a fantastic six games.

A delighted Alan Irvine said: "You can see how well Sheffield United are playing at the moment and we knew it was going to have to be a really good performance from us. We knew that we had to dig in and I thought it was probably a good game for people to watch.

"It's a team effort, the team on the pitch and the team off the pitch. If you go into that dressing room afterwards then you will realise how happy everybody is - not just the players who were out there and that's fantastic to see. They are all desperate for everybody to do well.

"The top half is a more realistic target than the Play-Offs. We have got far too much to do with five games to go but the fact that we are actually talking about it shows how far the team has come since we were bottom of the league in January."

Irvine was full of praise for the two-goal hero Neil Mellor, who took his chance in fine style after he was handed his first start for North End in just under two months.

The Manager brought in the former Liverpool man at the expense of Tamas Priskin, who was feeling a little jaded after playing 60 minutes for Hungary in midweek.

Irvine explained: "Tamas got back with us yesterday morning and my first question to him was 'how are you feeling?' and his answer was 'tired' so that really made my mind up.

"Mells was Fantastic. He has had a little thing about not being sure that he could get through games and I was told when I first came in here that Mells was a player to bring into the team off the bench and that he would have an impact doing that.

"I spoke to him about a month ago and said that I didn't think there was any reason why he couldn't make an impact from starting the game. He's had two reserve games recently and I think that's prepared him really well for this. He should now believe that he can start a game and have an impact."

Aside from Neil Mellor's all-important double strike, Callum Davidson had set the Lilywhites up and running with his first half rocket from the penalty spot.

Speaking about the Scot's no-nonsense style spot-kick, Irvine said: "Once again he had the courage to go up and take it and everyone knows what's been said about penalties here this season and Callum has been very strong mentally in the last two that he has taken."

The Gaffer also explained that he didn't expect either Callum or Simon Whaley to be out of action for too long after they were forced to withdraw from proceedings through injury.

He added: "We'll assess tomorrow and take it from there really. I don't think either of them are bad injuries."