"I am very happy with the boys as I thought we worked very hard and this was our best performance of the season," McAuley told the official site. "Everyone made a great contribution from the goalkeeper Chris Kirkland to Neil Mellor in attack.
"It was an outstanding goal from Neil but he is capable of that. Neil's positional play was very good and more importantly his all-round game was a lot better tonight in holding up the ball and linking well.
"The management team will recognise talent and give players a chance like we have seen with Stephen Warnock and Darren Potter this season. All the players can do is impress and continue to improve and hope they will get an opportunity."