Hull boss Nigel Pearson saw his team secure a 1-0 win over visitor's Preston, although the result was more comfortable than the scoreline would suggest. The Tigers have now lost just one of their last 16 games as they make a late bid for the npower Championship play-offs, but Preston have now gone eight league games without a win and are 10 points from safety.

Pearson said: "I think we played very well today and should have had a penalty in the first half, and we looked dangerous throughout.

"The result was the most important thing today. I think we were well on top throughout the game, and as 1-0s go it was as comfortable as you can hope for. But at 1-0 you still have to be disciplined, and I thought we were.

"What you have to say about Preston is that, by looking at their performance, I've seen sides in this division that are not as good as them. They should be encouraged by today, but obviously they're in a difficult situation.

"They made it difficult for us but I'm very pleased with how the players went about it.

"We, along with a few other sides, will feel we have a realistic chance of making the play-offs. Whether we can sustain it remains to be seen, but what I like most at the moment is that the dressing room runs itself.

"You have to remember that because of the start to the season we had, there's very little margin for error. Even though we've had a very good run of late, it wouldn't take much to set us back again.

"Overall the progress the team is making is good, and I'm pleased with the balance of the squad, and hopefully we can add to it."

Preston boss Phil Brown, and a former Hull manager, took some positives from the game but was disappointed with the performance of his three strikers.

"I can take an awful lot of positives.

"The support from the Hull City fans before the game was nice and there were some positives from the team, but again we have been on the losing side.

"We competed well enough but lacked that bit of quality up front. We started with three strikers, but I'd expect them to cause more problems to an opposition defence.

"The pitch wasn't conducive to a good game of football, but we still didn't hurt them enough in the first half.

"I need my players to have a 1-0 advantage mentality rather than a 1-0 deficit mentality.

"I asked players at half-time whether they could have given any more, and one or two put their hands up, which is not right. At the end, I asked the same question, and no-one put their hands up.

"In our situation we need everything, including some quality in the final third. It's about a collective team spirit and we need to get rid of this losing mentality.

"The players can forget about ability from now to the end of the season. I need 11 hearts to go out there, and we haven't got enough heart at the moment."