Preston North End 0-1 Luton Town: Daniel Iversen own goal gives Hatters three points
- Published
Luton won for the fourth time in six games in the Championship
An own goal from Preston goalkeeper Daniel Iversen was enough to extend their poor run after a narrow home defeat by Luton.
The Hatters forced the best chances of an uneventful game at Deepdale and found a winner inside the final 10 minutes when Iversen saved Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall's header, but James Collins' rebound went in off the goalkeeper.
Luton goalkeeper Simon Sluga preserved the lead with only three minutes remaining with a diving save to keep out Sean Maguire's header.
Preston have now won only once in nine matches to crash out of the Championship play-off race.
Manager Alex Neil made five changes from Tuesday's 2-0 defeat at Middlesbrough but it failed to spark any improvement from his side.
Until Maguire's late chance there was very little to show for Preston with Maguire having a shot from a narrow angle comfortably saved and second-half substitute Brad Potts seeing a late effort deflected wide.
Luton were much the livelier team with a half-chance for Elijah Adebayo on his left foot well blocked and a shot from Dewsbury-Hall saved low by Iversen.
The Preston goalkeeper then produced an excellent stop after the break, diving to his left to palm away Adebayo's header from James Bree's cross.
But Iversen couldn't keep out Collins' late effort as Luton claimed a first win at Deepdale since 1971.
A second consecutive victory for Nathan Jones' side, following Tuesday's 2-0 win over Coventry, saw them reach 50 points to almost certainly seal another season in the Championship.
Preston North End manager Alex Neil told BBC Radio Lancashire:
"The basics at the moment we're finding difficult to do and that makes it extremely difficult to win any football match.
"I don't think it's for a lack of effort, the boys ran about and really tried but we're just not doing well enough.
"I haven't got a Scooby-Doo what my best team is because what I get from one week to the next, god knows."
Luton Town manger Nathan Jones told BBC Three Counties:
"I'm delighted because I came back around this time last year and since then the group have been absolutely outstanding.
"We're establishing ourselves as a Championship side and we've had targets of where we want to be and we're hitting every single one.
"We've kept moving forward and that's what we've got to keep doing because we feel we should be higher in the league."