Preston North End boss Ryan Lowe has praised goalkeeper Freddie Woodman after racking up his 16th clean sheet of the Championship season.
PNE claimed all three points on Saturday afternoon as they beat Cardiff City 2-0 at Deepdale.
Tom Cannon and Ched Evans were both on the scoresheet, handing Lowe a second home victory in the last three.
That’s six unbeaten for PNE and Lowe is starting to turn things around after a very difficult period.
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This was another clean sheet too as Freddie Woodman battled on to prevent Cardiff.
Woodman took a blow to the face in the first half and had to get stitched up to stop some bleeding from the corner of his eye.
The former Newcastle United stopper made a superb save in the second half to deny Bluebirds striker Sory Kaba.
That’s now 16 clean sheets in the Championship this season; only Coventry City stopper Ben Wilson has kept more clean sheets in the Championship.
This is ultimately why Woodman is attracting so much interest.
The Scottish Sun reported earlier this month that Rangers, Leeds United and Leicester City are all interested in signing Woodman this summer.
A £3.5million fee was suggested but PNE will surely be desperate to keep such a quality goalkeeper at Deepdale.
Lowe has now paid tribute to Woodman, praising him for ‘fantastic’ saves against Cardiff whilst calling his clean sheet record ‘brilliant’.
Lowe added that there was absolutely no way Woodman was going to be substituted even with his eye injury.
The PNE boss also hailed Woodman for distributing the ball quickly and getting North End on the attack at a high tempo.
“Freddie made some fantastic saves and that’s 16 clean sheets for him now, which is brilliant. He’s got a gashed eye and had three or four stitches at half-time, but there was no way we were going to get him off the pitch,” said Lowe.
“He was on the front foot, throwing the ball out quickly and that’s what we want – for the tempo to be high and for us to be creating chances,” he added.