Preston North End 1 (Davies) Birmingham City 1(Gallagher
PNE: Maxwell, Clarke, Huntington, Davies (Earl 46), Cunningham, Gallagher, Johnson, Barkhuizen, Harrop, Robinson (Moult 69). Hugill (Browne 57)). Subs (not used): Horgan, Welsh, Moult, Bodin, Rudd.
Birmingham: Stockdale, Colin, Roberts, Deam, Grounds, Kiefenbeld, Ndoye, Davis, Boga (Adams 86), Maghoma, Gallager.
Subs (not used): Jutkiewicz, Bramall, Jenkinson, Jota, Morrison, Trueman.
Referee: Andy Davies (Hampshire)
Attendance: 13,529 (2,201 away)
City will probably think they dropped two points, they did, they wanted it more than North End who put in a performance that was truly awful, far too many were not on their game today against a side who were scrapping to get away from the bottom of the league.
Twice in the first ten minutes Gallagher should have scored for City, one effort defelected wide for a corner and the other missed a simple header from close range. Slightly against the run of play North End took the lead, some shocking City defending left Davies with the simple task of tapping in from a couple of yards after a defensive header across the face of the six yard box.
The goal settled us down and we started to play better but rarely looked like scoring and the speedy City forwards causing us problems on the break, Ndoye missed a good chance from about 1 yards following a break by Maghoma.
Second half never really got started and let in a goal which was probably worse than the defensive calamity for City's goal. Having got into a good position North End passed it back until it arrived at the feet of Maxwell, his pass dropped Huntington in the crap with two City forwards within yards of him, Huntington lost the ball, Maxwell charged out of goal, missed the ball and Gallagher had the simple task of slotting home from 18 yards, no more than they deserved.
City sussed they could win this one as North End started to panic, no tackle was won in midfield passes went astray only surprise was that City did not take advantage of it. Apart from a couple of Alan Browne efforts near the end we never got close to scoring again and managed to scrape a point we barely deserved.
Preston manager Alex Neil:
"I thought individually and collectively that's the poorest we've been since I've been at the club. So that's really disappointing.
"We didn't deserve anything from the game so the only bonus we can take is that we've got a point.
"I thought we were flowery and soft, they did the fundamentals very well but we were lacking that today. Performance-wise was really poor."
Birmingham City boss Steve Cotterill told BBC WM:
"We'll be going home disappointed tonight because we think our performance merited the win today.
"We could have gone two goals up before they scored.
"We've been playing well for a little while now. This isn't a coincidence - this is starting to be a good, consistent team."
PNE: Maxwell, Clarke, Huntington, Davies (Earl 46), Cunningham, Gallagher, Johnson, Barkhuizen, Harrop, Robinson (Moult 69). Hugill (Browne 57)). Subs (not used): Horgan, Welsh, Moult, Bodin, Rudd.
Birmingham: Stockdale, Colin, Roberts, Deam, Grounds, Kiefenbeld, Ndoye, Davis, Boga (Adams 86), Maghoma, Gallager.
Subs (not used): Jutkiewicz, Bramall, Jenkinson, Jota, Morrison, Trueman.
Referee: Andy Davies (Hampshire)
Attendance: 13,529 (2,201 away)
City will probably think they dropped two points, they did, they wanted it more than North End who put in a performance that was truly awful, far too many were not on their game today against a side who were scrapping to get away from the bottom of the league.
Twice in the first ten minutes Gallagher should have scored for City, one effort defelected wide for a corner and the other missed a simple header from close range. Slightly against the run of play North End took the lead, some shocking City defending left Davies with the simple task of tapping in from a couple of yards after a defensive header across the face of the six yard box.
The goal settled us down and we started to play better but rarely looked like scoring and the speedy City forwards causing us problems on the break, Ndoye missed a good chance from about 1 yards following a break by Maghoma.
Second half never really got started and let in a goal which was probably worse than the defensive calamity for City's goal. Having got into a good position North End passed it back until it arrived at the feet of Maxwell, his pass dropped Huntington in the crap with two City forwards within yards of him, Huntington lost the ball, Maxwell charged out of goal, missed the ball and Gallagher had the simple task of slotting home from 18 yards, no more than they deserved.
City sussed they could win this one as North End started to panic, no tackle was won in midfield passes went astray only surprise was that City did not take advantage of it. Apart from a couple of Alan Browne efforts near the end we never got close to scoring again and managed to scrape a point we barely deserved.
Preston manager Alex Neil:
"I thought individually and collectively that's the poorest we've been since I've been at the club. So that's really disappointing.
"We didn't deserve anything from the game so the only bonus we can take is that we've got a point.
"I thought we were flowery and soft, they did the fundamentals very well but we were lacking that today. Performance-wise was really poor."
Birmingham City boss Steve Cotterill told BBC WM:
"We'll be going home disappointed tonight because we think our performance merited the win today.
"We could have gone two goals up before they scored.
"We've been playing well for a little while now. This isn't a coincidence - this is starting to be a good, consistent team."
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