[themaclad]

Preston North End 0 West Bromwich Albion 1 Austin pen?

PNE line-up: Rudd, Browne ©, Rafferty, Pearson, Huntington, Storey, Barkhuizen (Nugent 90), Johnson, Stockley, Potts (Harrop, 88), Maguire (Bodin, 90). Subs not used: Ripley, Bayliss, Ledson, Armer, Nugent, Bodin.

West Bromwich Albion line-up: Johnstone, Gibbs, Robson-Kanu (Krovinović, 84), Bartley, Ajayi, Livermore ©, Phillips (Edwards, 61), Pereira, Sawyers, Diangana (Austin, 75), Ferguson. Subs not used: Bond, Furlong, Barry, Hegazi.

Attendance: 13,015 (1,357 West Bromwich Albion fans)

Referee: Mr O Langford



Injury and flu hit an under strength North End lost too a questionable very questionable penalty after young Albion substitute Edwards collapsewd in a heap after having a COPD attack in mid stream as North End keeper came towards him, first image shows before incident, second after


Barely seemed to be any contact and too be fair to Albion fans on Socia media even they thought it was a bad decision by Dudley base Mr Langford, however Austin sent Rudd the wrong way and that was that.
North End's patched up defence had Paul Huntington making his first league appearance for a long while and too his credit thought he had an excellent game and his non selection at Hull last week now does seem a very strange decision.
We seemed to give Albion too much respect in the first half standing off them, Phillips curling one narrowly wide and forcing Rudd to make a good save, Bartley should really have scored from close in from a Phillips free kick when he fired wide.
Meagre stuff at the other end although Maguire trying to beat Sam from the dead ball line would have been epic if it had gone in.
Level at the break, we were much more at it in the second half closing Albion down began to get in good positions and Johnstones'save from Johnson was top draw from the resulting corner Albion failed to clear the ball and Browne's goalbound effort cannoned to safety.
Both teams pressed for the winner with Gibbs for Albion getting into good positions but as we headed to a deserved point enter Mr Langford who apart from the iffy decision at the end had a decent gamee.
Very cruel but on we go.
Preston boss Alex Neil told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"When it's a last-minute goal you concede, it certainly makes it worse that it's a really contentious decision as well. If it was a little bit of quality from them, it would be more palatable.

"It certainly wasn't a vintage performance from us but we set up in a manner that I felt gave us the best chance of getting a win or getting something from the game, because we had so many players missing.

"I thought we were really comfortable in the second half, I don't think they had a shot on target but then the penalty decision swings the game.

"It doesn't look like a penalty to me. For how hard they worked, and how little space and time they gave some really good players in Albion's team, I thought we deserved something from the match."

West Brom manager Slaven Bilic told BBC WM 95.6:

"In the first half we were very dominant, we just lacked quality in the final third and I told the guys just raise the tempo and be patient.

"In the second half Preston improved and had their moments but the game changed in the final 20 minutes and we camped in their half of the pitch, and if any team deserved to win it was us.

"You can't imagine how big a result this is for us because Preston is a very difficult place to come and play."