Friday May 8
Preston North End 1 - 1 Sheffield United Championship - Preston hold razor-sharp Blades
Eurosport - Sat, 09 May 09:01:00 2009
Preston played out an entertaining 1-1 draw with Sheffield United in the first leg of their Championship play-off semi-final.
North End defender Sean St Leger opened the scoring on 21 minutes after being played onside from a long ball, before Brian Howard levelled things for the visitors just 15 seconds after half-time.
The game started off relatively nervously as the understandable play-off nerves seemed to affect both sets of players, with the Blades edging the early exchanges.
Preston began to make space for themselves, however, running through the gaps well - and just after the 20 minute mark the tactic paid off as St Ledger got on to the end of a long ball to open the scoring.
The speculative punt upfield appeared to have left the defender stranded miles off-side, but a flick on from the head of Nick Montgomery - spotted well by the linesman - had actually played him onside.
St Ledger almost seemed to be waiting for the whistle, and casually knocked the ball past Paddy Kenny as if he was on the training pitch before the referee's confirmation made him realise that he'd scored.
The goal jolted Sheffield into action in fine style, as they pushed hard and fast for an equaliser, with Jamie Ward and Stephen Quinn immediately had half-chances, before on 28 minutes Quinn's shot into the side netting briefly appeared to be an equaliser after latching on to Howard's delightfu lobbed pass.
Preston were on the ropes - yet just seven minues later they were within inches of doubling their lead as Jon Parkin saw his header from a soft corner hammer into the post.
The Blades pushed back to dominate after the chance, however, and just a few seconds after half-time they had their reward. A long ball upfield gave Darius Henderson a chance to hit a good shot, but the save from the excellent Andy Lonergan was deflected away and crossed back in for Howard to slide in and connect with a left-foot volley at full stretch that flew perfectly into thet net.
The visitors seemed to hang back slightly after having levelled things up, with defences tightening up and long passages of aerial ping-pong beginning.
But United's introduction of Craig Beattie got them going again, the striker having superb chances to steal the win on 67 minutes and then again in injury time.
Yet Beattie's wastefulness saw both chances blown: with the first, he seemed more interested in protesting for a penalty for a slight shirt pull, and was already shouting at the match officials even before watching his woeful effort sail over the bar.
Then, through and onside in the second minute of injury time, he shot at an acute angle against Lonergan while fellow substitute Arturo Lupoli was unmarked in the centre.
Both chances reflected the balance of play, with the Blades pushing forward time and again - though a spell of Preston dominance gave the vocal home fans hope.
But it is the visiting players who will look forward to the return match on Monday with the greater optimism - and the greater chance to secure a place in the play-off final at Wembley.
Toby Keel / Eurosport
