[themaclad]

Preston North End 1 Osmajic Cardiff City 2 Grant, Ugbo

PNE line-up: Woodman; Storey, Lindsay, Best (Hughes, 58); Potts, Browne, Whiteman, Brady; Evans (Ledson, 58), Osmajić (Millar, 84). Subs not used: Cornell, Keane, Frøkjær, Stewart, Ramsay, Whatmough.

Cardiff City line-up: Rúnarsson; Ng, Goutas, McGuinness (Panko, 75), Collins; Siopis (Wintle, 90+1), Ralls (Colwill, 71); Bowler (Tanner, 72), Robinson, Grant; Méïté (Ugbo, 71). Subs not used: Alnwick, Romeo, Adams, Rinomhota.

Attendance: 14,593 (789 Cardiff City fans).

Referee: Mr R Madley.

In the end probably Cardiff deserved the win however the circumstances conspired against North End, especially anexperienced professional with multi international caps producing a brain dead performance.
The incident which decided the course of the game came midway through the first half in which the visitors were by far the better side.
Evans tackle on Collins produced a reaction from Collins he appeared to as they say in the trade stick one on Ched. Fair enugh Evans seems to make a meal of it but there was a coming together of players.
Both Evans and Collins got yellow although the latter should really have seen red, anoter yellow was also shown to Robbie Brady which astonishingly was not picked up by Mr Fantastic.
Fast forward to the second period 1 up when Brady arses a City player out of the way and picks up his second yellow followed by a red. His walk to the tunnel takes him about two hours which was added on at the end of the game. From then on in it was always going to be hard work.
First half City better side good save from Woodman denied think it was Ng, Robbo was a constant thorn in our side had a few efforts on goal, we played well in patche but in the main were second best, Lindsay though had an excellent first half probably best in a white shirt.
We took the lead just after the break totally out of the blue, Osmajic charged down a clearence on the halfway and charged down towards the City goal, his touch wasn't great and the ball seemed way to far ahead of him, however the keeper didn't come and to be honset his postioning for the shot looked like he was defending the side netting, Osmajic said cheers and duly scored.
Then off went Brady and we defended the box. We sent on Ledson so technically we were playing with nine, he majestically set up Grant to fire just wide.
Try as they might, City couldn't score and victory looked on the cards, then came 9 minutes of injury time probably right although I thought it might end up as ten.
A series of corners and in the 96th minute City duly level my view was that a clearence hit Grant and ended up in the net, with the scores level that ominous sicking feeling starts to kick in when you know the opposition will score and sure enough 99th minute ball into box, no one picked up Ugbo and that's your winner folks nand yes Ryan Wintle I did note you taking the piss, I won't forget

Finally Mr Madley up to a point he had a decent game but if you fail to spot a head butt then you have ballsed up, one good thing Brady suspended for Tuesday for romantic night under the lights on Teeside

Cardiff manager Erol Bulut told BBC Radio Wales: "It's a very important win. From the first minute until the end of the game, my players showed character.

"It's not easy to play against 10 players. Sometimes it's more difficult but we did everything right. We kept the ball and tried to create chances.

"I think we deserved to get the three points. There were nine minutes added but it could have been 12 because the opponent tried only to waste time. You could see how important it was for both teams to get the win."

Preston boss Ryan Lowe: "I'm disappointed for the boys... but, I am proud of them for what they did in the game, for large parts of that game that is, particularly having to play with 10 men in the second half.

"We did well, apart from those two moments where there was a bit of luck for them and misfortune for us.

"I cannot fault the lads for what they have put into the match. To lose in the 99th minute, when they put everything on the line, I am so proud of the lads as I always am. It is a result that's a kick in the teeth at the moment."