Preston make it back-to-back home wins with victory over Swansea

For the first time this season, Preston North End have won back-to-back home games with victory over Russell Martin’s Swansea City, backing up Saturday’s win over Middlesborough at Deepdale.

A goal in the first half from Brad Potts was enough to secure North End the three points in what proved to be a very resilient and tactically spot-on performance from Ryan Lowe’s side.

Whilst Swansea dominated possession, Preston matched the Welsh side physically and allowed the Swans to have the ball where they couldn’t hurt the home side and the patience paid off as North End forced continuous mistakes from the visitors who just couldn’t break the Lilywhites down.

Despite the visitors having virtually all of the ball, it was North End that had all the chances with a free-flowing move from left to right saw Emil Riis scuff what seemed a certain goal as his effort went wide from 6 yards.

But, the Lilywhites continued to press and after Riis was denied a second time, the ball rebounded to wing-back Brad Potts who slotted home with his left foot to give the hosts a deserved lead.

Swansea lacked imagination and continued to play into North End’s hands by getting more and more frustrated with the lack of space and eventually giving the home side the ball back time and time again and as frustration kicked in, it appeared the Swans lost some discipline which resulted in space to be exploited for North End.

Ched Evans was a constant thorn in the Swansea side right the way through the first-half, linking up play brilliantly by dropping deep whilst also proving an arial threat that the visitors were struggling to contain.

The second half however saw the away side come out with a lot more composure. They seemingly dropped an extra man into the middle of the park meaning they were able to double up on which ever side they chose to attack down which saw Preston outnumbered in a 2v3 situation multiple times.

Despite the advantage mind, Swansea still failed to create too many clear-cut chances with the North End back three standing firm and holding out for their 11^th clean sheet in 19 Championship games this season, a truly remarkable record for Lowe’s men.

Preston continued to create a couple of half-chances with Evans having a header saved by Swansea ‘keeper Steven Benda before right at the death, Swansea were denied by former loanee Freddie Woodman who brilliantly stopped Ryan Manning from point-blank range.

But, it was the home side who held out through the 90 plus five added on minutes for the crucial three points and moved up to seventh in the Sky Bet Championship ahead of Wednesday’s midweek fixtures.

Next up for North End is a Friday night trip to Reading which is televised on Sky Sports with an 8pm kick off whilst Swansea host struggling Wigan Athletic at the Liberty Stadium.

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