Preston chairman Peter Ridsdale has backed Graham Westley after his players allegedly leaked sensitive information to Sheffield Wednesday.
Westley revealed that four of his players had allegedly informed the Wednesday management of North End's starting line-up and tactics prior to the 2-0 defeat and the former Stevenage manager also accused some of his players of intentionally working against him.
This has forced Ridsdale to publicly back Westley, who has won just two of his first 15 games in charge at Deepdale, citing his past recording of retaining managers as proof he will not dismiss Westley.
"All I can tell you is this football club 100% supports the manager," the former Leeds chairman told BBC Lancashire. "This football club has got a history of hiring and firing managers in the recent past. Clubs that succeed have a history of having managers there for a period of time. I had the longest-serving manager in the Championship when I was at Cardiff in Dave Jones. You've just got to look at Arsenal and Manchester United. Clubs that succeed appoint a manager, back a manager and have stability."
The leaking incident has been put to bed now and, after talking to the players, Ridsdale is confident the Lilywhites are now all pulling in the same direction.
"We've had a number of internal meetings with the playing squad. I'm now happy that what's been said inside the football club brings this matter to a close. We've all agreed that we'll move on and what we won't do is get sucked into any further detailed commentary about what happened on Saturday. We've all learned lessons and we're going to move on."
