Town boss Joe Royle felt his side suffered from too much travelling during their 1-1 draw with Preston at Deepdale.
Royle admitted that at the break he would have accepted a draw: "At half-time I'd have taken a point. We were so tired, and mentally we looked jaded after all our travelling this week.
"In many ways it's as impressive as recent wins. We did rouse ourselves and got back into the game.
"In the second half we pushed people on to stop them playing. It was that fatigue factor, rather than a problem. In the first half we were just not there."
Preston manager Craig Brown rated the Blues as the best side to visit Deepdale this season and tipped them for promotion: "Either side could have won. Although it is a home dropping of two points against a team of that calibre it's not a disaster.
"I think they will be promoted. If we finish above, so will we!
"We deserved to go ahead before half-time. At the end I told Joe Royle that I thought their second half performance was magnificent. We had two chances to kill them off in the second half but didn't do so."
Brown had particular praise for scorer David Healy: "I'm delighted for David. he hasn't had a lot of action. His feet were burning up at half-time and he was going through the pain barrier towards the end of his spell on the pitch."