James Collins scored a hat-trick, his second of the season, to extend Town’s current home unbeaten run to four matches in the Sky Bet Championship.

The gaffer understandably was in fine spirits after the full-time whistle, after watching his team produce a brilliant performance in front of 2,000 home supporters.

“Nice to keep a bit of symmetry - a 50 per cent win record isn’t bad," said Nathan. "I know I would have definitely taken 200 games as manager of this football club, and then if someone says ‘you can win 100 of those’, I would have snapped their hand off!

“The manner of today’s performance was very fitting, I thought we were excellent from start to finish. I thought the energy, the aggression we showed from start to finish. We’re competing at this level which is what we want to do.

“Preston had the best away record in the league, they’re a side that know what they’re doing, they have very good players, and they are a real difficult side to play against. For us to win the game in the manner we did, I’m very proud of the team.

“I think they had one or two half chances. Preston are a good side, I watched them midweek and they scored three against Middlesbrough, so it shows they’re a good side.

“I’m very pleased with the performance, how we pressed, our desire to win the game. That was key because the Championship is relentless week-in, week-out.”