"I thought the back four were immense and Romain did not have much to do until the very end there when he had to make a save.
"That's three clean sheets in a row at home and after losing at Derby I was delighted to get the result here because credit to Preston, they did not make it easy for us.
"We dropped off 15 yards after scoring and they pushed on the 15 yards. They never made it easy for us.
"We have another big home game coming up on Saturday against Ipswich so to get the win tonight was important going into that game."
Preston boss Alan Irvine said: "I was disappointed not to come away from here with something. I thought we probably deserved something from the game.
"At the end there Mawene forced a save from their 'keeper.
"I could not fault our commitment or work rate, we just lacked that final touch and I thought our final pass went astray, especially in the second half.
"I was disappointed with the goal because we knew what Rory Fallon would do at the set-piece, we know he comes in late at the back - and nobody tracked him.
"We looked at it this morning and yet we did not act on it tonight."