"We played some good football early on in the season and didn't get the rewards we felt were justified in our performances," said the City boss.
"Maybe our luck is just starting to turn because we're making it turn. We've had some good results and some good performances, and there's a good feeling in the camp.
"We kept believing in what we were doing and the way we were playing - what we needed to do was believe in ourselves more.
"You can't inject players with confidence - that'll take wins - and you could sense that with Preston today. Once we got the equaliser they looked leggy as if to say 'here we go again', and we capitalised on that.
"We had no cutting edge in the first half but in the second we moved up the pitch another 20 yards and that allowed us to make more chances and put them under more pressure.
"It could have gone either way at 1-1 but we got the goal and could maybe have made life easier by getting a third."
Preston boss Alan Irvine watched his side suffer a third home defeat in a row and see his side drop into the bottom 2.
"We hoped to build on two really good away wins but we haven't done so we now have to go back on the road again and get a good result," he said.
"It was a massive disappointment, especially after an encouraging first half. I spoke to them before the game about getting a good start and we got that.
"I thought we dominated the first half, certainly had the best chances, and we could have done with that second goal.
"We didn't start well in the second half and we should have dealt with the corner (for Cardiff's first goal). We then missed a very good chance to go 2-1 ahead and really from that point on we made a lot of mistakes."