[themaclad]

Plymouth Argyle 0 Preston North End 1 Millar

Plymouth Argyle line-up: Cooper; Pleguezuelo (Devine, 61), Phillips, Gibson; Edwards, Randell (Waine, 81), Houghton, Miller (Sousa, 53); Whittaker, Bundu; Hardie. Subs not used: Hazard, Scarr, Wright, Galloway, Roberts, Issaka.

PNE line-up: Woodman; Storey, Lindsay, Hughes; Potts (Stewart, 19), Ledson, McCann, Brady (Cunningham, 88); Frøkjær; Osmajić (Millar, 7), Keane. Subs not used: Cornell, Woodburn, Holmes, Whatmough, Seary.

Attendance: 16,646 (1,068 PNE fans).

Referee: Mr J Busby.

Th longest away trip of the season has been done and dusted from home back to home clocked up 640 miles up at 3.45am bak home at midnight, job done with three points. Nearly got slammed into by a early morninggdriver near the Motorway exit in Preston luckily I was awake and actually paying attention at that time of the morning a fairly close avoiidance of a prang.
Strensham 9am stroll round adjacent area in the early morning sunshine, once we hit Devon it rained and given we arrived at the ground a full 165 minutes before kick meant a soggy stroll around the park. Managed to find Plymouth's main supplier of narcotics in a shelter on the park playing music of the raggae persuasion and had a tab which appeared to have most of Columbia in it.

Row X which meant a hike up 20 plus rows atleast we were dry. Military Band, national anthem well sung and the ball delivered by absailing marines top stuff.

Four changes for us, two iinjured one ill, within 20 minutes we had lost Osmajic and Potts which in way worked to our advantage, Millar annd Stewart replaced them and it was Millar who created chaos all afternoon with the Argyle backline.
The Canadian shouuld have put us one up, we appeared to have ballsed the chance up but the ball ended up with the King of Denmark Frokjaer he flicked the ball over the defence Millar in on goal went with his right foot screwed it wide.
Argyle had plenty of the ball didn't really do a lot with it. Took the lead just before the break took the lead of all people Lindsay crossed the ball from the left, Keane headed on and Millar beat Cooper from a narrow angle, keeper is possibly a bit unlucky as the ball bounced just in front of him.
Argyle should have been level at the break second hase play cross into box and Bundu unmarked six yards out didn't hit the target.
Early Cooper save in the second half fro a Storey header lead to anther Argyle chance although it did come after some pinball defending by North End, Whittaker 10 yards out, he hit it well didn't hit the target.
We then proceeded to create chances which we missed with great regularity. Stewart nearly got his first goal hitting the outside of the post from 20 yards.
We nearly came to rue those chances a shot from distance beat Woodman flashed narrowly wide, home keeper Cooper thought it was in as did most in the away end. The home side claimed a late penalty having had the hindsight of seeing it this morning Hughes got the ball.
Argyle's under pressure manager was getting grief from his own fans whilst their ex gaffer had a better day

Plymouth Argyle head coach Ian Foster told BBC Radio Devon:

"I didn't think over the course of the first half period we were under any massive pressure from Preston North End.

"I felt we were quite unfortunate to be behind at that point, it's a game that we've dominated possession-wise but we just haven't found opportunities in which we can get the equaliser in the second half, albeit there's a stonewall penalty for us on Ryan Hardie.

"Having watched it back it's really disappointing that the referee hasn't seen it, or he has seen it and decided it's not a penalty.

"The players have given everything, there's no give-in in the players, they fought to the very end, we know how important it is for us to get points on the board and we're utterly disappointed to come away with no points."

Preston manager Ryan Lowe told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"It's not a happy return, it's a game of football and we've come here to do a job and get points and that's what we did.

"It was nice to see a few people and come back, and it's extra special when you get three points.

"I thought the lads were fantastic from start to finish.

"Losing Emil [Riis] this morning to a sickness bug, then to lose two important players in the first 20-odd minutes, I thought the lads who came on equipped themselves fantastically well and were excellent from back to front."