Preston North End 3-0 Huddersfield Town: Lilywhites ease to win over struggling Terriers
- Published
Preston North End's most recent Championship victory came against Lancashire rivals Blackburn Rovers on 12 February
Goals from Brad Potts, Ched Evans and Scott Sinclair saw Preston North End to a comfortable Championship home win over Huddersfield Town to extend the Terriers' miserable run.
Potts' fourth goal of the season gave Preston the lead midway through the first half before Evans doubled the advantage after half-time.
Sinclair then finished a sweeping move to apply the coup de grace 10 minutes from time.
It was just a fifth home win of the season for the hosts, who had only won one of their previous seven matches.
Huddersfield have now only won once in 11 league games and are tumbling towards Championship relegation zone.
Their best moments came in the opening period as Isaac Mbenza had a shot from outside the box and a free-kick smartly saved by Preston goalkeeper Daniel Iversen, who also came off his line quickly to smother Lewis O'Brien's effort.
Huddersfield also had an appeal for a penalty turned down after Fraizer Campbell was tackled by Andrew Hughes.
But it was Preston who took control as Evans and Potts combined twice to put Alex Neil's side on course for victory.
In the first half Evans threaded a pass to send Sinclair in on goal and though Ryan Schofield was quickly off his line to make an initial save, Potts was in the right place to turn home the rebound.
After the break, Potts turned provider when his low cross from the left found Evans in the centre of the goal and his first-time side-foot finish was too good for Schofield.
Preston's day was complete when Tom Barkhuizen's skilful outside-of-the-boot cross was finished first time by Sinclair at the back post.
Preston North End boss Alex Neil:
"It took us time to get into the game. We didn't start the game well and gave them too much time on the ball.
"We got ourselves ahead which we don't normally do. That is something we have spoken about.
"The lads were very strong in the second half. It is a case of taking your chances, we did that and it made the difference."
Huddersfield head coach Carlos Corberán told BBC Radio Leeds:
"We had two good opportunities in the first half that we didn't take and then lost the ball in the middle of the pitch and allowed them to score.
"We changed at half-time to have two strikers to give us more options, but again lost the ball in the middle of the park and they scored to unbalance the game.
"There were a lot of battles in the middle of the park we needed to win and in the second half they started to win the psychological and physical game to stop all our attacks."
Gordon Ramsay's Bank Balance: Can contestants beat the balance board and walk away with £100,000?
Lockdown and food: Why it causes emotional eating habits and how can we manage them?
