Phil Brown finally tasted victory as Preston manager at the 13th attempt of asking in a 3-0 win at relegation rivals Scunthorpe. North End still remain bottom and lie 10 points adrift of safety but with a home game against Coventry next up on Saturday, Brown feels his luck is beginning to turn at just the right time.

Brown said: "Pressure does mount but it's pressure that you put yourself under in the pursuit of success.

"The biggest challenge of my career was to get Hull City into the Premier League.

"Now without a shadow of doubt my biggest challenge is to keep Preston North End in the Championship.

"If we can do that then I'll be screaming for an open-top bus at the end of the season.

"It would be a massive achievement."

Brown says that confidence and belief are the key.

"Belief is such a massive word," said Brown.

"It's only six letters but it's such a big word in our game.

"We've got Coventry at Deepdale on Saturday and if we got back-to-back wins then suddenly that belief gets stronger and stronger.

"We've had glimpses of great performances in recent weeks and teams are just starting to respect us.

"We've got to go up another notch now and I think tonight with Iain Hume, Keith Treacy, Chris Brown and Eddie Johnson we would have provided problems for any team in the country.

"But it wasn't just about them. It was a team effort and I'm absolutely delighted with the clean sheet."

Scunthorpe's first-half display was woeful and the home supporters booed their team off at half-time and again at the final whistle.

"We got beaten up tonight, plain and simple," admitted Baraclough.

"I can fully understand that people are frustrated, of course I can.

"I've been in the game long enough to realise that if you're not getting results then people aren't happy, but I feel I can do the job.

"Tonight we just didn't perform and we were shellshocked to be 3-0 down at half-time.

"Can we stay up? While there are still points to play for I'm confident we've got the right group."