A 2-1 home win over Coventry left bottom club Preston eight points from safety, but successive wins have given boss Phil Brown hope. Brown, whose side won at Scunthorpe on Tuesday, said: "It's been a fantastic week. I promised back-to-back wins and hopefully three, four and five will come along.
"We have to give Coventry a lot of credit because they really came at us in the second half, but Nathan Ellington came on and got the first of what will hopefully be many goals for Preston.
"We were worthy of being in front but we let them off the hook and it was caution to the wind in the final minutes.
"That last-minute winner will give us a hell of a lot of belief and hopefully we can kick on from here.
"I know what we are capable of achieving but we've got a challenge on our hands so I want to keep the players switched on. The players have caught up with the idea of what I want from them."
The performances on Hume and on-loan Bolton man Ricardo Gardner pleased Brown.
He added: "Ricardo Gardner has been a godsend for us and I hope we can go forward together. He is a quality player and he looks as if he is getting stronger with every game.
"Iain is in a rich vein of form and we have good goalscorers up front too. He's exciting to watch and can make things happen but I think he can improve even further.
"I am still short on defenders though and I'm looking to add someone to that area of the field before the transfer window closes."
Coventry caretaker boss Andy Thorn was disappointed at losing to a late winner.
Thorn said: "It is really frustrating for us to have come so close to a point. Preston are well organised but I think we deserved more for the way we came back at them in the second half.
"They pressed us in the first half but I wanted the boys to be brave and keep trying to play, which I felt they did.
"We tweaked things a bit in the second half and we started to get a foothold in the game.
"When we scored we opened up a bit more and I was starting to think that maybe we could nick it, but to concede the way we did was a kick in the teeth.
"We have to pick ourselves up and we have two weeks without a game so we can get a lot done.
"If we keep doing the right things the results will come but I'm not afraid to change things if we think something needs to be done."
As for the search for a new Sky Blues manager, Thorn added: "I'm just getting on with the job and we'll see what comes, but the most important thing is getting the boys playing and we are certainly not giving up any ghosts in the dressing room."
