Bradford City boss Phil Parkinson admitted a moment of quality from Mark Yeates ensured their best performance of the season did not go unrewarded as they saw off Preston 2-1.
Yeates fired a curling 86th-minute strike past a diving Jamie Jones to secure Bradford's first league victory in six games.Rory McArdle's header gave Bradford the lead although Preston top scorer Joe Garner thought he had salvaged a point with a close-range, 85th-minute strike.
Parkinson said: "We expected them to throw everything at us in the second half, which they did - they're a very good team with a proud record here at Preston.
"We had a few good chances on the break ourselves where we could have extended the lead but we couldn't get that second goal and five minutes to go, they got the equaliser but an absolute moment of pure quality from Yeatesy has won us the game.
"We put some much effort into the game, the performance was as good as we've played this season and a draw would have been harsh for us.
"When they scored that goal, the crowd lifted. To then break like we did, you need your quality players to produce big moments in games and Mark has done that for us.
"I'm really pleased overall - it's a great win for us and we said after Halifax we wanted to build on that and we certainly have."